KALAMAZOO (WKZO-AM) — Gas prices have spiked again in the Great Lakes states to near $2.40 a gallon.
A couple of factors are at work and a third could make the situation even worse, according to tracking website GasBuddy.com.
“The BP plant in Whiting, Ind., and the Exxon-Mobil refinery in Joliet, Ill., have planned maintenance underway and that has slowed production, putting a crimp in the supply chain,” Patrick DeHaan, an analyst with the website, said on Wednesday.
He says OPEC is threatening to get its act together, which is boosting crude prices. He said, when they meet next in November, if they cannot agree to cut production, then he predicts that we will see prices go down below $2 a gallon before the end of the year.
“But it’s really a toss-up (as to whether that will happen),” DeHaan said.
He said they will be watching that for the next month and a half.
DeHaan says a more-immediate threat is Hurricane Mathew. If it whips around as some are now predicting and disrupts production in the Gulf, then he ways the whole nation could see a bump at the pump.
