Michigan gas prices to soar

GasBuddy.com, which tracks gasoline prices around the country, said the refinery’s problems could push gas prices in Green Bay and the surrounding area up 15 to 30 cents.

Piping inside the 240,000 bpd CDU, called Pipestill 12, which processes heavy sour oil crude, was damaged in a malfunction on Saturday.

Over the weekend, BP’s Whiting, Indiana, refinery plant experienced issues with its largest crude distillation unit.

A gallon of gas spiked to $4.24 in June of 2013 in Michigan because of technical problems at Midwestern refineries. Prices that had been declining in March jumped from $2.31 per gallon of regular gasoline to $2.44.

Western Canada Select, a proxy for crude from Alberta’s oil sands region, fell 20 cents to $19.50 below U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Last year, it was $3.54 per gallon.

“Wholesale gas prices have shed a lot of their value as well, and so what happens is that stations have a huge margin”. “So when one of them goes down, it has a huge impact”.

Decatur may be enjoying the same kind of gas price war that hit Champaign-Urbana two weeks ago, bringing it the lowest prices in the state, DeHaan said. “It’s just competition. You may not see that again next time around”.