Oil-refinery woes in the Midwest are hitting Colorado, causing gas prices to jump over the last week, according to industry experts.
Colorado has seen about a 14 cent increase in gasoline prices because four oil refineries reduced their output, said Gregg Laskoski, a senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com, a website that monitors gas prices nationwide.
A refinery in Indiana and another in Illinois first experienced problems. Normally, when two see a reduction, the area depends on other refineries to help fill the void, but two refineries in Oklahoma and Kansas had problems at the same time, Laskoski said, which caused the surge in prices.
“Colorado was impacted directly by this tight supply that is only now starting to see some correction,” Laskoski said.
The average price for regular unleaded in Colorado was $3.85 and the national average was $3.66 last Wednesday, according to AAA. In Cortez, regular unleaded averaged $3.89 on Sunday, although some stations were still selling gas for less than $3.80.
The high prices arrived just before one of the biggest travel holidays of the year. About 34.8 million Americans were predicted travel 50 miles or more from home during Memorial Day weekend, a 0.9 percent decrease compared with last year, according to a AAA news release. AAA President Robert Darbelnet cited continued economic uncertainty, the end of the payroll tax holiday earlier this year, and a 30-year low in the percentage of working-age people in the workforce.
The Memorial Day weekend is only the beginning of a travel season that is a strong factor in making or breaking local businesses’ yearly financials. Gas prices typically are higher in the summer, when demand also is high.
Laskoski said it’s hard to predict what gas prices will be like this summer, but experts are closely watching the four refineries.
“That will dictate the pace at which things are going to return to normal,” he said.
jdahl@durangoherald.com
