Las Vegas gas prices are on the rise, and it may get worse

There are two factors driving the spike, says a petroleum analyst.

“It’s primarily refinery outages in Southern California that are leading it, and will eventually slow, but could rise for another week or so until the issues are resolved,” said Patrick De Haan, head petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com.

The other lesser factor is the rise of world oil futures, now nearing $100 a barrel.

The retail price rise comes as cheaper winter blends are scheduled to arrive at local gas pumps starting Saturday.

Early Monday afternoon, Brent crude was trading at $94.53 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate was at $91.81, according to oilprice.com.

Oil investors are banking on tight supply and excess demand in the final quarter of the year as a result of production cut extensions by both Saudi Arabia and Russia, the two largest producers in OPEC+, said oilprice.com.

The average Las Vegas gas price was $4.826 a gallon of regular at 3:20 p.m. Monday, up 4 cents from Sunday’s $4.786 a gallon, up 23.4 cents from $4.592 a week ago week ago and 49.7 cents from the August average of $4.329, according to GasBuddy.com. Prices are up 1.7 cents a gallon from last year.

Only a four Las Vegas stations had regular priced below $4.20 a gallon on Monday afternoon, according to GasBuddy.com. Pahrump had a few stations selling just below $3.90 a gallon.

The lowest retail price in Reno is around $4.80 a gallon.

Contact Marvin Clemons at mclemons@reviewjournal.com.