DEARBORN, MI (WHTC/WKZO) – Two weeks after a tornado narrowly missed a key regional fuel refinery outside of Chicago, gas prices have yet to recover in Michigan and throughout the Midwest.
Officials with the Exxon Mobil complex in Joliet are hopeful to have the nearly 252,000-barrel-per-day facility back up and running by the end of this week.
The twister knocked out power to the plant, taking 16 units offline, including the vacuum distillation unit, FCC, diesel unit, and sulfur recovery unit, and caused some direct damage.
Repairs have taken longer than anticipated. As a result, fuel has had to be transported up from refineries along the Gulf of Mexico to accommodate customers in Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan.
This disruption has seen gas prices climb to nearly four dollars a gallon in West Michigan, and according to Triple A’s Adrienne Woodland, the Auto Club’s daily canvassing of stations statewide has an average of $3.77 a gallon, 27 cents above the national mean.
It’s the second time that a regional refinery problem has been felt at the pump here, following an early February fire at the facility in Whiting, Indiana. It may not be until mid-August before this latest gas price spike fully recedes.
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