BOSTON -- Retail gasoline prices in the Great Lakes states have leapt up to 50 cents per gallon (CPG) over the past month as refinery issues continue to plague the region.
“In the last month, no one has seen close to the pain exhibited throughout the Midwest,” said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for Boston-based GasBuddy. “Average gas prices in Michigan are up nearly 50 cents in the last month, followed by Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin, who have seen a jump of over 30 cents in a month, largely at the hands of various refinery woes and insatiable demand for gasoline.”
Michigan just ended an energy state of emergency that covered the Memorial Day weekend. The governor had relaxed hourly restrictions for fuel truck drivers after a crucial fuel pipeline shut down and Marathon’s Detroit refinery faced an outage.
Week over week, Michigan had the second-biggest increase in retail gas prices, up 13.5 CPG, according to GasBuddy. Illinois led at a 13.7-CPG increase, with Wisconsin (up 10.7 CPG), Indiana (9.4 CPG) and Ohio (8.1 CPG) rounding out the top five.
The national average rose 2 CPG to reach $2.38 per gallon, with prices growing in 30 states. GasBuddy expects prices to moderate during the next few weeks over much of the United States as gasoline production ramps up, and continues to project a $2.41-per-gallon average for the summer. In fact, according to Reuters, refiners have been pumping out so much gasoline that the fuel is nearly trading at a discount to diesel, which is very atypical for the peak summer driving months.
GasBuddy continues to expect a $2.41-per-gallon average for the summer.
Retail averages fell in 19 states week over week, including many on the East Coast such as South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and New Jersey, which were all off more than 1 CPG. Maryland had no change to its average.
On the West Coast, even though wholesale prices have risen week over week, many states are enjoying big discounts year over year. The biggest year-to-date declines are in Nevada (71 CPG), California (69 CPG), Alaska (68 CPG), Hawaii (60 CPG) and Oregon (53 CPG).
There are still about 3,500 gas stations selling regular at less than $2 per gallon, according to GasBuddy figures, with most in Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas. Compare this to six months ago, when two-thirds of sites were selling below that price point.
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