Gas Prices Jump Overnight In Five States After Trouble At Exxon Refinery

Gas prices jumped overnight in five states after trouble at an ExxonMobil refinery in Illinois, according to an energy analyst.

Regular gas prices rose approximately 17 cents a gallon in Michigan, 10 cents in Ohio, 8 cents in Indiana, 6 cents in Kentucky and 2.5 cents in Illinois from Wednesday to Thursday, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA). Tom Kloza, chief energy advisor at Gulf Oil, wrote on X Thursday morning that the jumps followed problems with a 50,000-barrel-per-day catalytic reformer at ExxonMobil’s Joliet refinery southwest of Chicago.

A catalytic reformer is a refinery unit that turns low-octane fuel into higher-octane material for gasoline, according to the Energy Information Administration.

The problem at Joliet shows that American refining is in a “zero tolerance” era, Kloza said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

ExxonMobil did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

An ExxonMobil spokesperson told CNN in a statement that the company is “working to resolve an operational issue” at the refinery but did not give a timeline for a fix.

Kloza said further price hikes at gas stations are almost certain but that the spike should not last. Wholesale prices in the region climbed another 25 cents a gallon later Thursday morning, he said.

“While I do not believe these crazy numbers can be sustained, they are pointing to $5/gallon prices in many cases,” Kloza added.

Prices in Michigan rose faster than in other states because wholesale gas on the Wolverine Pipeline is selling at the highest price, Kloza said. That pipeline brings gasoline into Michigan from refineries elsewhere in the Great Lakes region. He also pointed to some modest maintenance at a refinery in Ohio run by Cenovus as a factor in the jump.

Kloza noted that “ultimately I believe that Great Lakes gasoline prices will be falling before the month ends.”

Michigan drivers paid an average of $4.61 a gallon for regular Thursday, compared with a national average of $4.27 and $3.04 in Michigan a year ago, according to AAA.

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