COLUMBUS – The price of gasoline in Columbus dipped below $2 a gallon, but didn’t stay there for long, thanks to supply squeezes and a continuing increase in crude oil prices.
The average price for a gallon of regular gas in central Ohio was $1.99 Monday but had jumped by more than 12 percent 48 hours later, to $2.25 Wednesday, according to the daily price survey by the auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wex, Inc.
A production issue at the massive BP refinery in Whiting, Ind., has led to three consecutive weeks of declining supplies in the Midwest, according to AAA Ohio spokeswoman Kim Schwind.
The spike in Ohio prices followed one of the sharpest declines in the country (6 cents) between Aug. 7 and Aug. 15 (see illustration above), which came on the heels of – you guessed it – one of the largest increases (7 cents) the week before, according to the auto club’s analysts.
Crude oil prices are also climbing amid reports that OPEC might cap production to help stabilize prices, Schwind said. The Price of oil gained a cent to $45.75 a barrel in New York Tuesday morning.
Prices in the central United States continue to be among the cheapest in the country, but the notoriously volatile Midwest market has been a true roller-coaster ride over the past two weeks.
While drivers in Ohio and Michigan were enjoying the largest weekly declines, those in Kentucky, Indiana and Minnesota saw the biggest price jumps.
Schwind offers a reminder: All things are relative.
The prices at the pump Tuesday morning were 78 cents cheaper than in 2015 “and we thought that was ‘low’ compared to the previous year,” when prices were $1.34 higher.