New World Order for Petroleum Markets: Gas in the U.S. could reach $7 a gallon

By Joshua Boak and Greg Burns / Chicago Tribune

Drivers will likely need to become comfortable with gas at $4 a gallon, as oil experts say an era of historic pain at the pump will endure well beyond the Memorial Day weekend, when prices traditionally peak.

You might trade in that GMC Yukon for a Honda Civic, skip the highway for the bike lane and redefine that time-honored tradition of the road trip. Americans are already reordering their Memorial Day weekends, with AAA predicting a decrease in travel for the first time since 2002.

But those changes might not be enough to immediately pull down a gasoline market that follows the whims of the world economy. Newfound wealth fills pockets of the globe once known for overwhelming poverty, and for the first time prices are responding to their thirst for fuel as much as demand in America.

The new world order for petroleum markets has some analysts predicting far higher prices ahead. Gasoline in the U.S. could reach $7 a gallon because more drivers in India and China will hit the road even as American oil consumption retreats, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce predicts.

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