California’s High-Price Petroleum Virus May Spread Across The West, Analyst Says

California’s troubled refineries threaten to spread a diesel price virus hitting drivers and businesses across the West, an analyst warns.

Wholesale diesel prices in Los Angeles and San Francisco have reached record highs, with Los Angeles prices surging 52 cents per gallon and San Francisco prices climbing 21 cents, Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy reported on X late Tuesday. The increases come as refinery maintenance squeezes regional fuel supplies, threatening to push retail diesel prices higher.

“As neighboring states are in the same vicinity and sometimes supplied by California, pricing impacts will likely spill into WA, OR, NV and AZ as well as CA,” De Haan told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“A high level of refinery maintenance is impacting the West Coast,” De Haan added. “As what comes out of a barrel is more gasoline than diesel, it is diesel that is seeing larger impacts right now.”

The refinery maintenance crunch comes as American energy producers continue navigating disruptions tied to the Iran conflict, which has placed additional pressure on global fuel markets.

Diesel prices have already climbed so high in California that some stations reported prices reaching the $9.99 limit on their pumps. California’s gas prices remain around $2 above the national average, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA) as of Wednesday.

“We are entering the fall turnaround season for refineries,” energy analyst David Blackmon told the DCNF. “Many U.S. plants have been running at full capacity well beyond their scheduled maintenance calendars due to the Iran Conflict — keeping them running full-out even longer risks breakdowns and incidents no one wants to see.”

Years of regulatory pressure and refinery closures have left California increasingly dependent on fuel shipments from Asia and the Gulf Coast, making the state’s fuel market more vulnerable to disruptions, energy analyst Stuart Turley argued.

“There is only two ways to lower prices at the pump for diesel, gasoline and jet fuel. That is demand destruction, or more refineries,” Turley told the DCNF.