COLUMBUS – BP says it has restarted a portion of a large Indiana oil refinery whose unplanned shutdown for repairs caused gasoline prices in Ohio and several other states in the Great Lakes region to spike earlier this month.
The impact has already been reflected in pump prices in central Ohio, according to a daily survey by the auto club AAA the Oil Price Information Service and WEX, Inc.
The average retail price in Columbus Wednesday morning had fallen 8 cents since Monday and was down 21 cents from a week ago.
GasBuddy.com senior petroleum analyst Patrick DeHaan says gasoline prices in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin and neighboring states served by the refinery could fall 20 to 50 cents a gallon over the next two weeks as long as no new problems develop.
“It could be a matter of a couple of weeks or a couple of months before we see the first stations at under $2 a gallon,” said DeHaan.
BP issued a news release Tuesday saying it has safely restarted the crude-oil distillation unit – the largest in the Midwest — at its refinery in Whiting, 15 miles southeast of Chicago, which had been shut down since Aug. 8 for unscheduled repair work. BP says the restart of the unit is increasing the refinery’s fuel production, with output ramping up over time.