It’s pretty hard for most people to connect oil prices into something meaningful. After all, what does the difference between $70 and $90 per gallon actually mean to me?

I heard a simple way of understanding it this morning. Every ten dollar rise in the price per barrel costs an additional $.25 per gallon at the gas station. When oil prices rises from $70 to $90, you’re paying an extra $.50 per gallon to fill up your car, SUV or delivery van.

Oil prices have been relatively low recently and were about $90 per barrel at the end of 2010. That’s in sharp contrast to late 2008 when it hit $147 per barrel. If that happens again, expect to pay another $1.50 per gallon at the local gas station. For a typical SUV, that’s almost forty buck more to fill the tank.

Information in this article was provided by Oil-Price.net