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STATEWIDE–Gas prices have gone down slightly across Indiana and much of the country, but that could change as early as this week.

The main factors that are driving that are the coronavirus, oil prices, and the supply of oil and gasoline.

“On the supply side, OPEC did meet a couple of weeks ago. That’s where the supply is coming from. They are increasing production by 350,000 barrels per day starting in May. So that was a little bit of downward pressure on the price of oil. The other thing driving downward pressure is COVID-19 cases going up,” said Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy. “Countries in Europe are locking down and cases in the U.S. are going up too.”

In Indianapolis and much of Indiana, DeHaan said prices have not gone up in April yet. Oil prices went up by 82 cents Monday morning. Typically, when it’s been at least a week or so since a price increase, DeHaan said you can expect an increase to happen in the coming days. That appears to be the case this week.

As of Monday, GasBuddy has the statewide average for gas at $2.75 per gallon. It’s $2.70 in Indianapolis, $2.71 in Fort Wayne, and $2.81 in Evansville.

“There could be a hike later this week. If you’re sitting on empty or even if you’re at a half or three-quarters of a tank, it may not hurt to fill up, especially if you can find it for under $2.60. I would think that by Thursday, we could see an increase to about $2.79 or $2.89 per gallon unless there is some huge plummet in the price of oil,” said DeHaan.

$3 per gallon gas prices are possible at some point this summer, but DeHaan doesn’t expect that anytime soon.

“I don’t expect that to happen in April, but it still could happen in May, June, or July as we get into hurricane season,” said DeHaan.