ST. CLOUD --The upcoming gas price hike may become a long term situation.

Gas Buddy predicts the national average will rise to $2.49 per gallon, with some cities rising as high as $3.

Analyst Patrick DeHann says OPEC may be the primary cause, due to recent cut back's in oil production since January 1.

"In November OPEC announced they would be cutting production and that's driving up a price of oil. With OPEC cutting productions it's going to mean less supply," says DeHann.

DeHann says the last 2 years of oil prices may have been temporary. Higher prices may be back to the norm' in the near future.

"The last two years were more of a temporary situation, now we're going to start to see some normalcy when it comes to oil prices," says DeHann.

GasBuddy experts predict motorists may spend over $50-billion more at the pump in 2017. The yearly average being 36-cents higher.

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