BATON ROUGE - As pandemic restrictions ease and the economy returns to normal, gas prices are trending upwards throughout the U.S.

“What’s happened since the pandemic is people have come back to work. We’ve started to see people traveling again. We’ve started to see transportation, flying pick up again," associate research professor at LSU, Greg Upton said.

In Baton Rouge, gas costs have gone up an average of 10.6 cents per gallon in the past week. Prices have not been this high since 2014.

"What we’re seeing right now is the demand is coming back faster than anticipated, and supply is taking a bit longer to come back online. And that puts upward pressure on prices," Upton said.

But gas experts say this is normal, and what goes up will surely come back down.

“Right now, futures markets are indicating that prices will actually go down in the later part of the year and into next year," Upton said.

Upton cited two reasons for the expected dip in prices later this year: one being less travel during winter months, and oil companies producing more fuel, which will eventually balance the market.

Compared to the nationwide average, Upton believes Louisiana is a good spot to be in.

“When you look, typically we’re 20 to 30 cents lower per gallon than the nationwide average, and the reason for that is because we’re in this corridor for which those products are produced and also refined."