Ohio could see $3-a-gallon gasoline soon

Van Wert independent/submitted information

COLUMBUS — Ohio gasoline prices are on the rise — with $3 a gallon gas on the horizon — and it doesn’t look like they’re dropping anytime soon. Gas prices are experiencing historic leaps this week, largely due to a crude distillation unit outage at BP’s Witing, Indiana, refinery, the largest refinery in the Midwest.

Ohio’s gasoline prices are largely tied to the Chicago market, which is prone to wild swings in prices. Spot prices in this market were among the lowest in the country just last week, but have since jumped to some of the highest in the country.

The Situation:

Chicago spot prices have jumped more than 85 cents since news of the outage at BP Witing’s largest crude distillation unit hit early this week. This outage could reportedly take a month or so to fix. While there is a lot of speculation about the extent of the damage, it is clear that the market expects this to be a problem for at least a few weeks.

The impact of this outage has been compounded by the following:

• Marathon’s Catlettsburg refinery in Kentucky recently ramped up production after an August 2 power outage.
• Planned maintenance that was scheduled to start this week at Marathon’s Robinson, Illinois, plant
• Ongoing planned maintenance at the Phillips 66 Wood River refinery in Roxana, Illinois
• High summer driving season demand for gasoline.

This is leading to tight supplies and much higher gas prices in the Great Lakes and Central United States. Short-term prices at or above $3 a gallon are not out of the question.

Gas Prices:

The last time Ohio’s average gas price was at or above $3 a gallon was October 23, 2014. The national average gas price last hit $3 a gallon on October 31, 2014.

Despite the recent spike, gas prices remain below year-ago levels. On this date last year, Ohioans were paying an average of $3.51 a gallon and the national average was $3.47 a gallon. For daily gas price averages and comparison charts, visit FuelGaugeReport.AAA.com.

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