CHICAGO — Minnesota motorists could see a massive spike in prices at the pump in the coming days, according to a national money-saving app.
GasBuddy is predicting prices to skyrocket anywhere from 50 cents to $1 per gallon over the next several days in multiple states, including Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma.
While there were few details about what is causing the potential spike, GasBuddy's lead petroleum analyst Patrick De Haan says sources believe a refinery outage could be to blame.
“The details on the outage generally lag the response we see in wholesale gasoline prices, due to the nature of these situations," said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, in a news release. "A refinery that goes down has contractual obligations to supply certain volumes of gasoline to stations. If an unexpected outage happens, the refinery that goes down suddenly may not have enough supply to meet its obligations and has to find another refinery to buy from. This can push prices up considerably, as a refinery could be a very large buyer. Adding in that we’re just a week away from the switch to cheaper winter gasoline, we have a very large, but temporary squeeze in the market.
“While a waiver from the EPA to allow the switch to winter gasoline now could happen, what we absolutely know is that without action, gasoline prices are about to spike in a significant way and motorists should be prepared for increases that could last until a waiver is issued, or the change to winter gasoline happens on September 16."
Across the entire state, fuel is currently averaging $3.70, which is down 10.7 cents from last month but up 1.8 cents from a year ago.
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