The internet’s trending “monitoring the situation” meme usually features someone sternly squinting at a phone or a computer screen.
In the real world, Americans are squinting at a more unsettling trend: rapidly rising gas prices.
For Patrick De Haan, those two trends overlap in his career. The GasBuddy petroleum analyst spends his days parsing hundreds of data points flashing across screens that ultimately influence what drivers are paying at the pump.
From his desk in Chicago, he regularly cycles between internal GasBuddy tools, spreadsheets tracking fuel prices, Energy Information Administration data, commodities markets, and market-shifting news stories to understand how pricing trends are moving through the fuel supply chain.
Before casting a wide net for information, he starts his day with one simple data point.
“The first thing I do in the morning is look at the price of oil,” De Haan told Business Insider.
De Haan says much of his work involves triangulating information across multiple reports and industry sources to understand why markets are suddenly moving.
“Whenever oil prices see a significant move, I’ll start trying to locate needle-moving headlines that may influence what we’re all seeing,” he said. “I’ll just keep digging until there’s something that makes some level of sense on why markets are moving.”
He said he used internal AI to synthesize large documents, but declined to elaborate on how he uses it.
During periods of major fuel-price volatility, De Haan often becomes part analyst and part explainer, fielding television interviews and podcast questions about why prices are suddenly moving higher. The analyst regularly appears on national and local television broadcasts, contributes analysis to digital publications, and writes his own Substack focused on fuel markets and energy prices.
As De Haan tracks the signals affecting the prices flashing on the tall, lit signs hanging above gas stations, millions of drivers are increasingly turning to GasBuddy to try to save money.
The app allows users to compare nearby gas prices using a mix of crowdsourced reports, gas station data, and third-party partnerships.
PDI Technologies, GasBuddy’s parent company, told Business Insider the app has more than 6 million monthly active users.
According to data shared with Business Insider by app analysis firm Appfigures Intelligence, GasBuddy downloads surged 384% month over month in March to roughly 575,000 US downloads. Downloads in April dipped to 473,000 — still more than double the app’s monthly average.
Just one week into May, more drivers have downloaded the app this month than they did in all of January, Appfigures Intelligence says.
Appfigures also found that GasBuddy has recently received a noticeably higher share of negative user ratings than usual, potentially reflecting growing consumer frustration around fuel prices.
Like the “monitoring the situation” meme itself, much of De Haan’s job involves watching events unfold elsewhere in the world and waiting to see how markets react.
Right now, De Haan said much of his attention remains focused on tensions surrounding the Strait of Hormuz.
He told Business Insider he sees a wide range of possible gas-price outcomes — from $3.50 to $5.50 a gallon nationally this summer — depending on how negotiations between Washington and Tehran unfold.
“It becomes a game trying to determine the state of mind behind the US and Iran,” he said. “That’s impossible.”
