Gas prices in Wisconsin could start to fall more steeply in the coming days, now that a key refinery is back up and running.
Prices spiked earlier this month after the partial shutdown of a BP refinery in Indiana that serves most of the Midwest. The facility is back at full capacity now, and Nick Jarmusz with AAA-Wisconsin believes it will be good news for drivers in the coming weeks. “We should expect prices to continue falling…perhaps at a faster pace to rejoin where the national average is right now,” he predicted.
Wisconsin is currently about 25 cents above the national average of $2.55 for a gallon of regular unleaded fuel, although prices have been coming down slowly since an initial spike about two weeks ago. Jarmusz expects the state could get closer to the national average, from its current $2.77 a gallon sometime in the next “week or so.”
As for the rest of the year, prices could continue to go down now that the summer driving season is coming to a close. Jarmusz said it’s not impossible that prices could fall back down to around the two dollar mark in the coming months, barring any unexpected disruptions in supplies that cause oil prices to go up again.