SHEBOYGAN COUNTY, WI (WHBL/WXPR) - You knew it was too good to last. Gas prices are expected to rise sharply in the next few days after a Midwest refinery ran into problems.
"The region's largest refinery, the BP Refinery in Whiting, Indiana went down unexpectedly on Saturday, one of its largest units shut down," says Patrick DeHaan, a senior petroleum analyst for Gasbuddy.com. "That unit close to half the capacity of that refinery. It may be shut down for a week or two."
DeHaan says markets get nervous when glitches like this occur. Already, wholesale prices in the Upper Midwest are up 90-cents in recent days due to the impact the refinery could have on supplies. As for how much the price could go up, DeHaan says he estimates an increase of 15 to 30 cents through the weekend, but don't be surprised if some stations reach the $3.00 a gallon mark. "If anything our forecast is a bit conservative. All we know is there are some steep gas prices hikes coming to pumps across the Midwest in the next week." Overall, gas prices had been stable to falling a bit due to abundant supply prior to this refinery problem. The good news is once the refinery issue is resolved by the end of the month, supplies will be back to normal and prices should go down.