Indiana refinery woes may hike gas prices by 30 cents-$1

August 12, 2015 in News by RBN Staff

Gas prices in the Midwest may go up as much as 30 cents to a dollar due to a refinery shutdown in Indiana.

BP’s refinery in Whiting is having problems with its largest crude distillation unit, which handles more than half of the facility’s capacity, according to Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst with GasBuddy.com.

BP Refinery Partial Shutdown

Source: Detroit Free Press
By Zlati Meyer, Detroit Free Press2:08 p.m. EDT August 12, 2015 

The refinery is the seventh largest in the U.S. and the biggest in the Midwest, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s website. Its operable capacity is 413,500 barrels per calendar day.

“Almost immediately, market gasoline prices shot up on the concerns of reduced gasoline supply from the BP refinery,” DeHaan said in a written statement, estimating a 15- to 30-cent hike.

The national average gas price per gallon is now up 1.9 cents from Tuesday’s average of $2.582, GasBuddy.com reported.

The AAA Daily Fuel Gauge found that today’s average Michigan per-gallon price, $2.581, is more than 11 cents higher than the previous day’s, $2.477. In the Detroit market, the average price increase is 9 cents.

Daniel Flynn, a trader-analyst with the Price Futures Group in Chicago, said he heard the refinery issues will last a month.

“This is going to be a shock in the market.” he told the Free Press. “Depending on how bad this is, we could see a dollar rise within two weeks. …. What we’re looking at is a disruption in the supply and unfortunately, the consumer would pay at the pump.”

Three weeks ago, motorists in 20 states, including Michigan, were elated by GasBuddy.com’s forecast that gas prices would be at $1.99 or below by Christmas time, but the Whiting refinery woes might turn out to be a mid-summer grinch.

“This definitely puts a kink in it,” Flynn said. “I believe crude oil prices are at a low, but throw in the Whiting refinery issue and it’s unfortunate.”

Contact Zlati Meyer: 313-223-4439 or zmeyer@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @ZlatiMeyer