PETAL, Miss.–Petal has the cheapest gas in Mississippi right now. You can get it for $2.02 at two stations there and $2.03 at another. The state average is $2.22 and if you find that painful to hear, you might be happy to hear also that it may not get much higher, unless crude oil prices go up.
Oil expert Trilby Lundberg, who tracks oil and gas prices across the county, said Mississippians may not see it go up much more because there is plenty of gas to be had.
“There’s no shortage, so it’s unlikely we’ll see a big jump unless crude oil steps in to do it,” she said.
Lundberg said crude oil is always the biggest piece of the “gasoline price pie”. In other words, it’s always the biggest factor in how much gas goes up or down.
“In this case it’s been very steady, with up influences being offset by down influences.”
To blame for gas going up in the past few weeks are strikes in the oil industry which have made price-setters nervous, even though capacity has not diminished.
