Las Vegas Review-Journal: Analyst: Las Vegas has ‘a lot to be concerned about’ with rising gas, jet fuel prices

No city has more riding on summer fuel prices than Las Vegas.

Patrick De Haan, lead petroleum analyst for GasBuddy, said Wednesday that summer travel could be affected across the U.S. by rising fuel prices, but especially in Southern Nevada, if President Donald Trump doesn’t work out a plan to end the war in Iran, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and get oil moving again.

“Las Vegas probably should be a little anxious on that here because your summer could be make or break by jet fuel prices, which have surged,” De Haan said.

Rising gasoline and diesel prices will probably drive up prices for groceries and other coming into the Las Vegas Valley, according to De Haan, who said the city “has a lot to be concerned about” over those transport costs as well the impact higher prices will have on discretionary spending.

“I can’t think of a U.S. city that has more riding on the Strait of Hormuz reopening than a city like Las Vegas. … You’re so heavily reliant on fuels,” he said.

On March 10, the top executive of the Las Vegas Convention and Tourism Authority said it was too early to consider whether rising fuel prices could affect Southern Nevada visitation.

“You can put together packages that can overcome the cost of gas fairly easily,” Steve Hill, president and CEO of the LVCVA, said after a LVCVA board meeting. “It’s an important component, but you know it’s not going to be 10 and 20 percent of the cost of a trip to Las Vegas for sure.”

AAA reported that diesel fuel hit a record $6.30 a gallon Wednesday in Las Vegas, up from $5.77 a gallon last week and $3.88 a gallon one month ago.

The average price of unleaded gasoline in Southern Nevada on Wednesday was $4.98 per gallon. That price remained steady from Tuesday and is an 11-cent jump in the past week and a $1.28-cent increase in the past month — the highest Southern Nevada has seen since Oct. 7, 2023, according to AAA data tracked by the Review-Journal.

Las Vegas Valley gas prices could hit a $5 per gallon average by the end of the week, De Haan said.

If nothing is done in the near term to at least partially reopen the Strait of Hormuz, De Haan said, it is not out of the question that gas prices in the Las Vegas Valley could near the record high of $5.61, set on June 16, 2022.

“That’s absolutely within contention, because the president is kind of shrugging off U.S. gas prices like, ‘Yeah, well, if that’s the price we have to pay,’” De Haan said. “If the president doesn’t change his tune and rapidly get whispers in his ear that, hey, this is still going to be a problem, I’d be concerned. It is fascinating to me how somebody that’s so in touch with gas prices suddenly is like, ‘eh, does it really matter?’”

If and when the Strait of Hormuz reopens and the oil supply begins to move again, prices could begin to fall within days, De Haan said.

“If it’s very fully reopened, we’d see a oil prices probably plummet, $10 or $15 in the first week or two,” De Haan said. “That would start to lead to lower prices within a few days.”

Stations would continue to lower prices by a couple of cents every couple of days for about three to four weeks, De Haan said.

“We’ve got a lot of catching up to do, and that catching up is going to take probably into the summer,” De Haan said.