CHICAGO, Ill. – While gas prices jumped in West Michigan Tuesday, experts are expecting more jumps in our region over the next week.
GasBuddy.com reports that this past Saturday, the BP refinery in Whiting, Indiana had to shut down a “crude distillation unit” for “unplanned and unexpected repairs.” This unit reportedly refines 240,000 barrels a day. The refinery normally refines 430,000 barrels a day, putting it at 44% of capacity.
GasBuddy.com says prices are likely to spike in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin and possibly even Kentucky and Missouri into the next week. Patrick DeHaan tweeted just before 1:00pm that gas is spiking to $2.99 today in Michigan.
According to GasBuddy.com, there are other midwest refineries having issues as well. A Phillips 66 refinery near St. Louis is rumored to have ongoing maintenance and a Marathon refinery in Robinson, Illinois has planned maintenance this week. If the Marathon refinery doesn’t push its maintenance back, gas prices could go higher.
AAA Michigan says the shutdown in Whiting could take a month or so to fix. It is expected to at least last a few weeks.
Read more on the GasBuddy.com blog.
