AAA Northeast warns of gas prices hiking after OPEC production cuts

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — A group of oil producing nations in the middle east announced a surprise cut in oil production on Sunday which will put pressure on gas prices in the U.S.

“I don’t drive too much every day so I don’t think it will impact me personally very much but definitely will have an impact overall who have to drive every day,” Yeng Zhang, a Rhode Island resident told ABC 6 News.

“So I do uber, go pal, food delivery services so I’m constantly on the road driving so it’s going to impact me and a lot of people severely,” Jesse Querceto, a Providence resident said.

Drivers in Rhode Island added because of last year’s record-high prices, they’ve learned to cope with price fluctuations.

Mark Schieldrop, a spokesperson from AAA Northeast said, “generally when we start to see prices tick up, people change their behavior and I think a lot of Americans, they learned a lot of lessons on how to save money at the pump, how to drive less.”

AAA Northeast also told ABC 6 News it may only be a few cents per gallon this time around, but it still impacts drivers.

“It’s impacting everyday life because everyone drives cars almost,” Zhang said. 

“It cuts into your cost to what you make a week, so trying to make money to pay your bills and rent, it affects everything,” Querceto added.

Despite the United States having a surplus in oil from the lack of demand through a mild winter, Americans still see the increased pressure on gas prices.

“All the markets around the world are interconnected so any time there’s going to be production decrease somewhere, we’re going to see in turn, oil prices go up,” Schieldrop said.

He also added to try and fill up your gas tanks as soon as you can because a gallon of gas could be as much as 10 cents higher by the weekend.