Refinery fix to drop gas prices by 20-50 cents

Gas prices across the Midwest are dropping now that the refinery troubles in Indiana that caused costs at the pump to spike earlier this month are fixed.

Motorists in Michigan and other Great Lakes states can expect to see prices plummet 20 to 50 cents a gallon over the next two weeks, according to Patrick DeHaan, GasBuddy.com senior petroleum analyst.

"As gas stations buy cheaper gasoline, they will pass savings along to motorists, but they will also attempt to recoup margin losses sustained from the unprecedented spike in wholesale prices that occurred two weeks ago," he said in a statement today.

The average gas price in Michigan today, as of 2:20 p.m., was $2.741, according to the Web site. That's down from $2.812 Monday and $2.984 last week.

The largest crude distillation unit at BP's refinery in Whiting, Ind., broke down; it handles more than half of the refinery's capacity. That caused gas price in metro Detroit to skyrocket more than 50 cents in a week.

BP announced today that the facility was back on track.

"BP has safely restarted a large crude distillation unit that had been shut down since Aug. 8 for unscheduled repair work. Restart of this unit is increasing the refinery's fuel production, with output ramping up over time. The rest of the refinery continues to operate safely. In the meantime, the company continues to meet its contractual fuel supply obligations," the company said in a statement today.

Less than a week before the refinery shutdown, GasBuddy.com predicted that fuel prices would drop to $1.99 or below by Christmas in 20 states, including Michigan. DeHaan told the Free Press in an e-mail that he still expects that to happen.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration's Web site ranks the Whiting refinery seventh largest in the United States and biggest in the Midwest.

Contact Zlati Meyer: 313-223-4439 or zmeyer@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @ZlatiMeyer