Libya Impacts the Crude Oil Market
How will Moammar Gadhafi’s potential ouster impact your wallet? “Libya is one of the top 20 oil producers and exporters in the world,” explains AAA Mid-Atlantic’s Jana Tidwell. “Since the civil war began, Libya has cut off all exports of crude oil. That’s about 1.6-million barrels of crude oil a day that have not made it to market.”
Many experts predict that Libya could resume exports soon, thus bringing down the price of crude oil, and easing the pain at the pump. “In theory that’s correct,” Tidwell says, “But we also see some unrest in Syria right now.” So, there’s a potential for a catch-22 on the global oil market.
Oil prices are mixed as of mid-Monday, but Tidwell says it’s too soon to predict the short or long-term impact on the price we pay for gasoline. “If we see crude oil hold in the $80-dollar a barrel range, as we have seen in the last week or so, gas prices should continue to trickle down.”
AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge Survey pegs the statewide average for regular gasoline at just over $3.56 a gallon. That’s about a nickel better than this time last month, but still 87-cents higher than this time last year, in the Keystone State.
