--- title: How the New OPEC Deal Will Affect Gas Prices—and Maybe Flight Prices Too description: Consumers are likely to see price hikes. authors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Economy and Politics - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2016-09-29T15:21:08.000Z' modified: '2024-05-16T11:46:12.000Z' section: Economy and Politics tags: - Autos - Gas prices - Oil - Oil prices - OPEC - pubdesk word_count: 514 canonical: https://money.com/opec-oil-prices-gas-prices/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Orange hose ready to refill kerosene gas in to tanks of a jet plane.](https://img.money.com/2016/09/162909_em_opecdeal.jpg) Gas prices this past summer were the cheapest in more than a decade, and drivers have been told to expect [even lower prices](https://money.com/gas-prices-cheaper-fall-decline/) at the pump this fall. Yet a recent [pipeline leak](https://money.com/gas-prices-spike-30-cents/) in the Southeast and other factors have caused [gas prices to increase](https://money.com/gas-prices-spike-30-cents/) in certain parts of the country, and the national average has hovered around [$2.20 per gallon](http://gasprices.aaa.com/) for regular gasoline for about a month. Now, after OPEC reached an agreement to scale back oil production this week, oil prices are expected to climb—and gas prices should follow suit. The big takeaway for consumers is that in all likelihood, fewer drivers will be paying [under $2 a gallon](https://money.com/gas-prices-oil-2-a-gallon/) for gas this autumn and winter. On Wednesday, wholesale oil prices surged nearly 6% after [Reuters reported](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets-idUSKCN11Z01H) that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed to cut back on oil production. Until the agreement was reached, Saudi Arabia had allowed oil producers to [pump out as much crude](https://www.rt.com/business/361040-saudi-arabia-oil-production/) as they wanted, and thanks to plateaued demand and increased production from other parts of the world, the overall effect has been cheaper oil (and gas) prices. A barrel of crude oil is now selling for a little under $50—a bump up from prices [around $30 last winter](https://money.com/should-i-buy-oil-stock/), but still a huge drop from the going price of [$110 two years ago](http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37502538). ***Read Next:* 10 Things That Will Be Cheaper in 2016** Analysts such as UBS are saying that they do "not anticipate a sharp rally in oil prices" after the OPEC deal, [*Bloomberg* reported](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-29/the-biggest-winners-and-losers-from-opec-s-oil-deal). But the agreement is highly likely to lead to gas prices that are higher than they would have been, per *Bloomberg*: "Some increase is now inevitable, though again that depends on how successfully the agreement holds." Normal market forces had been pointing to America's national average dipping [below $2 a gallon](https://money.com/gas-prices-cheaper-fall-decline/) by Halloween. In the aftermath of the OPEC agreement, we may not get there quite so soon. There could be some consequences felt by airlines, and airline customers as well. The airlines have been swimming in profits thanks to cheap fuel prices. Cheaper oil has made it easier for airlines to scale back airfare prices and bring back some perks to passengers too. So if there's a long-term increase in oil prices, there will be obvious impact on the airline business—and airline customers. For many reasons, though, it's not exactly clear how the OPEC agreement will affect the global oil industry and oil prices—and by extension, gas prices at the pump, fuel prices paid by airlines, and flight prices for ordinary travelers. One effect of OPEC's plans to scale back oil production could simply be to encourage other oil producers to up their game to take advantage of higher oil prices. ***Read Next:* [The 10 Richest Places to Live in America](https://money.com/collection-post/richest-towns-america/)** As Bjarne Schieldrop, chief commodity analyst at SEB, explained to [*Reuters*](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets-idUSKCN11Z01H), "We think that OPEC is running a dangerous game if the aim is to push the crude oil price higher from here in the short term as it would just activate more U.S. shale oil production." ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/opec-oil-prices-gas-prices/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Economy and Politics", "item": "https://money.com/economy-and-politics/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Gas Prices", "item": "https://money.com/gas-prices/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "How the New OPEC Deal Will Affect Gas Prices—and Maybe Flight Prices Too" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/opec-oil-prices-gas-prices/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/opec-oil-prices-gas-prices/", "name": "How the New OPEC Deal Will Affect Gas Prices—and Maybe Flight Prices Too", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-09-29T15:21:08.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/opec-oil-prices-gas-prices/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/opec-oil-prices-gas-prices/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-05-16T11:46:12.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "How the New OPEC Deal Will Affect Gas Prices—and Maybe Flight Prices Too", "articleSection": "Economy and Politics", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/09/162909_em_opecdeal.jpg", "width": 2100, "height": 1400, "caption": "162909_EM_OPECDEAL" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brad Tuttle", "url": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/#author", "description": "Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals.\r\n\r\n", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/01/Brad-Tuttle.png?w=226&h=247&crop=1", "alumniOf": "Columbia University School of Journalism, MS", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle", "https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-09-29T15:21:08.000Z", "description": "Consumers are likely to see price hikes. 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