MINNEAPOLIS– Gas prices in Minnesota are forecast to rise 50 cents to $1 in the coming days.
According to fuel savings platform GasBuddy, prices are expected to rise in much of the Corn Belt and a refinery outage could be the cause.
RELATED: Why do gas prices always end in nine-tenths of a cent?
“The details of the outage generally lag behind the response we are seeing in wholesale gasoline prices due to the nature of these situations,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “A refinery that goes bankrupt has contractual obligations to deliver certain quantities of gasoline to stations. If an unexpected disruption occurs, the refinery that suddenly goes bankrupt may not have enough supply to meet its obligations and will have to find another refinery to buy from. could drive prices up significantly as a refinery could be a very large customer.”
On Friday morning, De Haan said average gas prices in Minnesota rose 11 cents compared to last week.
“If you add to that the fact that we are only a week away from the switch to cheaper winter gasoline, we are dealing with very strong, but temporary pressure on the market,” says De Haan.
According to AAA, Minnesota’s average gas price is $3,774 as of Friday, compared to the national average of $3,808.
WCCO personnel
Thanks for reading CBS NEWS.
Create your free account or log in
for more features.
