BEAUMONT, Texas — The war in Ukraine has us all doing double-takes at the gas pump.
As of Thursday night, Beaumont has surpassed Houston and Galveston with regular unleaded gas running at $3.31 a gallon.
The U.S. warns that it's just a matter of time before they impose full sanctions on Russia’s energy exports because of the war in Ukraine.
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine could potentially increase Southeast Texas gas prices as the entire US deals with high oil and gas prices.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine could impact Americans’ wallets at the pumps even more soon.
“This just matters because we're talking about crude oil supply from one of the largest crude oil producers on the globe,” said petroleum economist Karr Ingham.
The US is the largest producer of crude oil on the planet. Russia is the second-largest crude oil exporter.
“When you start worrying about supply being restricted somehow, either because of sanctions or because of activity of war that somehow slows down the production function or the movement of Russian crude oil and other products into the export markets,” Ingham said.
Crude oil prices are not set locally, statewide, or nationwide. They are set globally.
“When you talk about cutting into the global supply, from one of the major suppliers of crude oil in the world, that's what's making prices go up this week,” Ingham said.
It has a direct impact on the pumps. The gas price average in Texas is $3.38 for a gallon of regular unleaded fuel.
“But with gasoline prices in Texas in 2008, that were much closer to that, very close to $4 a gallon. And so, we're not as bad as that right now. I hope we don't get that bad,” Ingham said.
Texas produces 43% of all crude oil in the United States. That’s 1.78 billion barrels.
The U.S. Department of Energy intends to sell 30 million barrels of crude oil from the strategic petroleum reserve up to 2 million barrels will from Big Hill.
Ingham said this is only a short-term solution.
“It's just not going to be enough barrels moved into the marketplace to matter for any length of time,” Ingham said.
So, what are some long-term solutions?
Ingham said beefing up oil production drilling in the U.S. would help fill the gaps from lost production from Russia.