NORTHWEST INDIANA - A question on many people's minds is when are gas prices going to go down. But Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy said Thursday that Northwest Indiana Hoosiers are getting a break.
"The good news is that so-far we're not seeing a rise in Northwest Indiana, at least at this point," DeHaan says. "Prices down in Northwest Indiana about 14 cents a gallon in the last week, averaging about $2.71 today."
While prices are down in Northwest Indiana, DeHaan says Michigan saw a price jump on Wednesday after selling gas at a loss for much of last week.
"They raised prices to $2.69, but even after they raised prices, the wholesale price of gasoline went up another .25 cents a gallon," DeHaan says. "And most stations in Michigan did not increase their price after that."
Despite Michigan stations raising their gasoline prices Wednesday, DeHaan says so-far as of Thursday we've have not seen prices rise in the Region.
"We could still see an increase tomorrow. There's a small chance that we could. The wholesale price of gasoline today is up slightly," DeHaan says. "If we don't see an increase tomorrow, I would expect one early or mid next week. I think the good news is that most prices should continue to stay under that three dollar a gallon mark, but we're still dogged by some of the same issues that caused prices to go up a few weeks ago."
The issues included refinery maintenance and the partial shut down of the Explorer Pipeline that was closed for a week-and-a-half. It is once again open after repairs. Another factor, the gasoline inventories in the Midwest are at three-year lows currently. According to GasBuddy historical data, gasoline prices on November 6th in Northwest Indiana have ranged widely over the last five years:
$2.04/g in 2016, $2.26/g in 2015, $2.93/g in 2014, $3.11/g in 2013 and $3.39/g in 2012.
