Gas Prices Rise Sharply in Midwest on Refinery Outage

By Paul Ausick Updated Jan 13, 7:09AM EST · Published Jun 6, 11:05AM EDT

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Gas Prices Rise Sharply in Midwest on Refinery Outage — © Thinkstock

The national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline rose four cents in the past week to $2.365. The most common price was rose by 20 cents to $2.299, and the average difference between the highest 5% of prices and the lowest 5% prices is $0.985. One year ago, a gallon of regular gas averaged $2.761 in the United States.

The region where prices have risen the most in the past week is the Midwest, where an outage at Marathon’s 144,000-barrel a day Detroit refinery raised prices sharply in the Chicago wholesale market, according to a report from GasBuddy. Prices rose by 12 cents per gallon in Ohio, 10 cents per gallon in Michigan and Kentucky, and eight cents per gallon in Indiana.

Prices along the Gulf Coast are likely to be pressured by an approaching tropical storm (Colin) that already has added 10 cents a gallon to pump prices in Florida and six cents in Texas and Louisiana. Senior petroleum analyst at GasBuddy, Gregg Laskoski, said:

But this week it’s the weather that warrants close scrutiny as the National Weather Service alerts us to Tropical Storm ‘Colin’ which they project has the potential to wreak havoc from Louisiana all the way up through the northeastern seaboard. While adverse weather often reduces fuel demand in the short-term; summer storms in the Gulf of Mexico are always problematic for gasoline prices especially if they impact the concentration of refineries or cause coastal flooding or power outages.

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The five metro areas where gas is cheapest are Lubbock, Texas, ($2.049 a gallon); Spartanburg, S.C. ($2.050); Amarillo, Texas ($2.057); Albuquerque, N.M. ($2.077); and San Greenville, S.C. ($2.079).

The five states with the lowest average prices are South Carolina ($2.088), Mississippi ($2.103), Oklahoma ($2.105), Arkansas ($2.121) and Louisiana ($2.142). There are 10 states where gas prices exceed $2.50, led by California ($2.831), Hawaii ($2.719), Washington ($2.618), Alaska ($2.608) and Michigan ($2.597). Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and Nevada, as well as Washington, D.C., are the other five.

Among U.S. gas stations, nearly 98% are selling gas for $2.00 or more, while 64% are selling gas for $2.25 to $2.49 a gallon and 100% are selling gas for more than $1.75 a gallon.

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About the Author Paul Ausick →

Paul Ausick has been writing for a673b.bigscoots-temp.com for more than a decade. He has written extensively on investing in the energy, defense, and technology sectors. In a previous life, he wrote technical documentation and managed a marketing communications group in Silicon Valley.

He has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Chicago and now lives in Montana, where he fishes for trout in the summer and stays inside during the winter.