Californians are feeling some pain at the pump, but the rest of the country doesn't have to worry about gasoline prices soaring, top industry analyst Tom Kloza said Monday.
In fact, he thinks national prices are going lower.
"California is very, very separate. They have their own refining system. They can't get the imports the rest of the world does and they have an adversarial relationship system between the refiners and the regulatory community," the co-founder and global head of energy analysis at Oil Price Information Services said in an interview with CNBC's "Closing Bell."
Some parts of the state saw gas soar above $4 a gallon in the last few days, he pointed out. The national average price is $2.77 a gallon, according to AAA.
What's happening in California is a "little bit of a perfect storm," said Kloza, citing the government's desire to decrease fossil fuels by about 50 percent.
"That comes with a price," he said. "You can't tell refiners you are going to put them out of business and expect that everything is going to run smooth."
The pain could last anywhere from five days to five weeks, but then prices will fall sharply lower, he predicted.
When that happens, the gap between California and the rest of the nation will narrow, with prices dropping back towards $2 or $2.25 a gallon by November or December, said Kloza.