Gas Tops $5 on the Upper West Side, Straining Local Station as Well as Drivers

By Scott Etkin

With the war in Iran now in its third week, gas prices have surpassed $5 per gallon on the Upper West Side.

As of Tuesday morning at the Mobil station on West 96th Street between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue, regular gas was priced at $5.19 per gallon, premium at $5.59 per gallon, and diesel at $5.99 per gallon. The Mobil station is the only gas station on the Upper West Side – where approximately 25 percent of households own a car, according to the NYC Department of Transportation – though there are others in surrounding neighborhoods.

Tamara Igel, who has run the Mobil station for 22 years and took over the business from her father, said on a call with West Side Rag that customers have started buying less gas, which has negatively affected the business, which was already under pressure following an especially snowy winter that limited driving.

“The price goes up every day, so we have to recalculate every day or we lose money,” she said. “I’m suffering, too. It’s not better for me. It’s much worse for me.”

Igel said that while she understands why customers are upset about paying more than normal, she hopes the maintenance work that the station provides is an important enough service to offset that and earn the community’s loyalty at this difficult time.

“When they [residents] get their holes in their tires from all the construction stuff and all the potholes, and we help them, they’re grateful to us,” she said. “Yet, the extra $10 on a tank of gas … throws them over the edge.”

The price of gas has increased by around 50 cents per gallon since the war began on February 28th, according to an attendant at the Mobil station. Since Sunday afternoon, prices have ticked up by 10 cents per gallon, and as usual, they are higher in Manhattan than many other parts of the state.

Across New York County, the average price of a gallon of regular gas is $3.64, up from $2.97 a month ago, according to a fuel price tracker maintained by AAA. Historically, the highest recorded average price in New York County was $5.21. This took place in the summer of 2022, four months after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Experts have said that there will be long-term disruptions to the oil supply chain due to the war in Iran, even if the violence ends soon.

Oil facilities across the Arab Gulf (for example, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Qatar) are manually shutting valves to slow down the flow of petroleum – a process known as a “shut-in,” according to Richard Nephew, a researcher at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.

“Shut-ins don’t just happen and then you turn a switch and everything’s back together. You have to get production back online, and that can be pretty time-consuming” because pauses can cause corrosion and structural damage that needs to be repaired, he was quoted as saying in an article in Fortune.

Igel emphasized that during a previous disruption to the oil supply chain caused by Hurricane Sandy, she did not raise prices to make a profit, and there were lines of cars around the block coming to the station to refuel.

“We really are a community business,” said Igel. “We need our neighbor’s support now.”

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