Get ready for another spike in gas prices heading into the weekend, though prices are still less than what they were this time last year.
Wholesale gas prices are rising, which means gas stations will likely raise prices over the next few days even though the price of oil remains relatively low. “Oil inventories spiked. They rose eight million barrels. At the same time, gas inventories fell by three million barrels,” said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com of the latest report from the federal Energy Information Agency. There are several reasons why refineries are not turning as much oil into gasoline right now, primarily outages at some plants. “BP‘s Whiting, Indiana refinery suffered a pretty big outage. The second largest unit at that refinery went out due to some cold weather-related issues,” said DeHaan. Part of a refinery in Ohio went down for the same reason. Refineries already had cut production as they start their annual maintenance to convert to production of lower-emission summer blend gasoline, which goes on sale in most areas June 1. “We‘re seeing a little bit of a price lift because the specifications call for a little more of that cleaner burning gasoline, and it costs more to produce,” DeHaan said. Prices already have gone up across other Midwestern states, so DeHaan says a rise is probably just a matter of time in Indiana. So far, refineries have been able to maintain production levels despite a walkout by employees who are members of the United Steelworkers. They are striking over what they say are safety issues – the strike has extended to 15 refineries, including BP in Whiting. “Almost all of these refineries have been using replacement workers, contractors, retired workers they are calling back, so they have been able to bridge the gap so far,” DeHaan said. The current average price in greater Indianapolis, according to GasBuddy.com, is just over $2.30/gallon. That‘s more than $1.20 lower than the average price a year ago.