Gas prices jump to 2-year high, with more gains expected for Labor Day weekend

• Prices at the pump jumped sharply by Friday morning, with another 20 to 30 cents per gallon hike expected.
• The national average rose by 7 cents per gallon to $2.52 from Thursday.
• Gasoline prices are rising sharply in some states, and they are expected to continue to climb until the damage from Harvey becomes clear and refineries begin to get back online.
• About 1.4 million barrels of refining capacity is expected to come back online soon, leaving about 3.5 million offline.

Published 4 Hours Ago

Gasoline at the pump jumped overnight, with the national average rising 7 cents per gallon by Friday morning, and more gains expected over the Labor Day weekend as refineries remain shut down by Harvey.

According to AAA, the national average rose to $2.52 per gallon for unleaded gasoline Friday, up from $2.45 Thursday and $2.33 before the hurricane hit the Gulf Coast. In some areas, prices jumped by double digits overnight, and there could be more sharp, but temporary gains ahead as distributors struggle with reduced supplies.

"Demand does go down after Labor Day. There's a bunch of good news out there, but the reality is we don't know what's going on with refineries," said Jeff Lenard, vice president, strategic industry initiatives, National Association of Convenience Stores. Convenience stores sell about 80 percent of the gasoline in the U.S.

Prices should continue to rise into next week, but are expected to level off and back down as refineries come back online and gasoline moves through the system, analysts said. The national average could rise as much as 20 to 30 cents more before it begins to steady.

Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at Oil Price Information Service, expects gasoline to rise to $2.75 per gallon. He said the condition of several major refineries is still unclear, and the U.S. gasoline supply is complicated by the fact that the U.S. is now a significant exporter of gasoline to central and South America.

Kloza said because of those factors, prices could stay high during September, but start to drop late in October.

Harvey forced refineries to reduce processing by about 5 million barrels a day as facilities from Corpus Christi, Texas, to Lake Charles, Louisiana, cut back or shut down. But a portion of that is now being restored.

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In northern Texas, prices were also much higher. Motorists were lining up for gasoline in Dallas, where prices jumped from an average $2.37 per gallon Thursday to $2.52 per gallon by Friday, according to AAA.

"Part of it is Dallas is supplied by a pipeline from Corpus Christi, and of course those pipelines have been down," said Lipow. "There was a social media explosion of panic, so everyone went to the gas station. Supplies are going to be tight but they're going to get better."

Lenard said the best thing consumers can do is not to panic and top off gas tanks.

n South Carolina, the price of unleaded averaged $2.38 per gallon by Friday morning, up 12 cents from Thursday. The Southeast is served by the Colonial Pipeline which was operating but at a lower volume. In Atlanta, the average price was $2.50, up 11 cents from Thursday.

"The hot spot to watch out for would be the east coast and New York harbor," said Kloza.

The Motiva refinery in Port Arthur, the largest U.S. refinery , could be down for a month, Lipow said. "That's based on the fact that it's going to take two weeks to assess damage and at least two weeks to get back on stream," he said.

The ExxonMobil Baytown refinery, the second largest refinery, has had some flooding and also could be down for up to four weeks.

Gas prices: Refinery problems causing largest daily price hike in 3 years in LA County

Friday, March 22nd, 2019

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Problems at refineries have caused gas prices to rise over 4 cents a gallon in Los Angeles County, the largest daily price hike in three years.

The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in L.A. County is $3.48, and in Orange County it's $3.44 -- those are the highest prices we've seen since December.

The 4-cent spike is the biggest since February of 2016.

AAA says a fire last Friday closed part of the Phillips 66 Carson refinery. There was also planned work at the Torrance refinery and unplanned flaring at the Chevron El Segundo refinery.

That caused prices to go up, and analysts say higher oil prices are likely to push gas prices even higher.