The cost of gas has gone up in recent days, up on average from early in January around $2.40 a gallon around the nation to above $2.50 as February’s end is coming up.

Locally, prices are as high as $2.55 at stations like the Kroger Fuels in Cedartown, and Raceway in Rockmart, along with others as the price of Crude Oil remains on the rise, along with other factors that increase costs.

The biggest reason gas prices are increasing again is the cost of how much a barrel of crude oil costs on the market. When the pandemic shutdowns began last year, the price per barrel went down to around $35.00, but since then has slowly increased again and in recent weeks and months was hitting the range of $50.00 a barrel. It hit $60 a barrel for the first time in over a year, according to Yahoo News.

A lot of that has to do with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) slashing production to increase the price, since demand has been lower since the beginning of the pandemic.

What’s likely to keep prices higher heading into the spring is the shutdown of refineries in Texas, which suffered from power outages due to a winter storm which shut down production facilities in the state.

Around 20% of the gasoline in the United States is refined in Texas, and the below freezing temps that hit for the past days forced facilities to shut down and therefore reduce the amount of gas immediately available to stations, the cost of which is being passed onto consumers.

Prices should likely continue to rise after production gets back to normal, because right around that time the refineries will be shifting over to making gas more suited toward summer driving and travel. Gas in the winter is blended differently from gas in the summer to reduce smog, but with that comes an increase in cost as well.

So expect gas prices to rise toward the $3 range by this summer.

Know where to find cheaper gas prices? Share them in a comment below and help everyone same a few cents per gallon.