Will gas prices plunge after U.S. deal with Iran? Expert says, "this might be another false start"

With the announcement of a possible deal to end the war with Iran, one question remains on drivers' minds: will gas prices plunge?

"That'll be great," said Cambridge Mobil customer Galen McDavid as he pumped his gas. "I'll be smiling from ear to ear."

But you shouldn't celebrate so fast, experts say, especially given that prospective peace deals have been announced before. 

"There's a chance that this might be another false start here, and we're not going to see the level of production rising as quickly as we'd like. I hope that's not the case," said expert Chuck Zodda, the managing partner and Chief Investment Officer at the Armstrong Advisory Group.

"We've seen a couple of different phases with different agreements in this conflict. I remember back on April 7, there was the ceasefire agreement, and during that time, there was a lot of optimism that things were going to quiet down," he added. "Instead, while we did see the fighting quiet down, the Strait of Hormuz largely remained closed or seeing, you know, traffic levels that were very depressed from normal."

That's why his method for predicting the future of gas prices is: trust, but verify. "You want to trust that something can get moving here, but you need to actually see it and verify that it's happening, before you can, you know, really start to celebrate."

In particular, consumers should keep an eye on the next four to six weeks, he said. The U.S. has been supplementing its oil needs from other sources including the country's strategic reserve – but that oil can only go so far. "Until you actually see oil flowing in meaningful quantities again, it's going to be something where it's always in the back of my mind, hey, is this for real," Zodda said.

Cambridge gas station owner Elie Lakkis says he's cautiously optimistic. "You definitely have to be cautious. That's for sure," he told WBZ. "There's nothing that [station owners] can do. It's mainly the oil companies what they price. What they give us the price for it, and what we got to justify it to be fair on the market," he said.