The pain at the pump continued to plague Michigan on Friday, with the cost of gas rising nearly 30 cents overnight, according to one tracking service, while rising slightly for another one.
The state’s average price of regular unleaded gasoline on Friday was $4.86, about 28 cents higher than the day before, according to the AAA-The Auto Club Group. That’s also up 90 cents from a week ago, when the average was $3.96 per gallon.
Dallas-based tech company and fuel price tracker GasBuddy said Michigan gas prices on Friday averaged about $4.87 per gallon for regular unleaded, up slightly from Thursday. Friday’s price is also about 87.7 cents higher than last week’s average of $3.99 per gallon.
Gas has reached $4.99 a gallon in some places in Michigan, including Eaton, Branch, and Manistee counties, GasBuddy also reports. At least one Lansing station had regular unleaded Thursday for $5.09 a gallon.
Robert Rivait of Berkley, who drives a Toyota RAV4 gas-electric hybrid, scoffed after topping off his tank and paying $12.87 for 2.62 gallons at the Amoco station at Woodward and Greenleaf in Royal Oak, which was $4.74 a gallon on Thursday and Friday.
“Isn’t it ridiculous?” Rivait said and then referred to President Donald Trump. “These are Trump prices.”
“These high prices are terrible,” Oak Park resident Tracy Williams said Friday at the same Amoco.
Williams said she feels the pain at the pump every day when she refuels because her work keeps her constantly on the go, from transporting students to school to helping the elderly.
What’s driving the rise
Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy’s head of petroleum analysis, said Thursday on X that the Great Lakes region, which includes Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois, is “seeing signs of weakening wholesale gasoline prices.”
BP’s 440,000-barrel-per-day oil refinery in Whiting, Indiana, over the weekend unexpectedly experienced a brief power outage that caused one of its processing units to be shut down.
But De Haan said BP issued a statement that the Midwest’s largest refinery has operations back to normal. This should help regional refinery capacity.
De Haan told The Detroit News on Thursday that gas retailers might cut prices slightly in the days ahead as Midwest refinery capacity comes back online. But after such a rapid increase in prices, retailers will be careful about decreasing prices, he said. They don’t want to lower prices too quickly because they may need to increase them again depending on market developments, he said.
“I don’t foresee any further increases in these states,” De Haan wrote in his Thursday note, including Michigan. But he said new developments could change the situation.
On Thursday, De Haan and other experts said this week’s price surge was being driven by fears that oil shipments will continue to be pinched through the Strait of Hormuz due to the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, declining gas inventories, and the BP Indiana refinery closing in addition to two Illinois refineries being down for maintenance.
Lorraine Morical filled her car up with just over 17 gallons of gas at a Mobil station just east of Lake Orion. It cost her nearly $90.
The price has increased from $3.99 a gallon to $4.89 in less than a week or 90 cents, said Morical, 72, of Oakland Township.
“I thought Trump was going to put a price (cap) on them, and he hasn’t,” she said.
Asked what she would like to see with the U.S.-Israel war in Iran, Morical said she’d like the Trump administration to “stop pussyfooting around with them.” While Trump has threatened intensified military action against the country, negotiations persist amid a ceasefire.
“Nothing is coming to an agreement. They just keep putting it off, postponing, postponing, postponing,” Morical said, but added that she would prefer not to have “any type of war or people dying.”
Gerald Glenn of Detroit said it now costs him about $100 to fill up his Chevrolet Silverado. He called the skyrocketing gas prices “really sad,” as he fueled up Friday at an Amoco gas station in Detroit’s Midtown.
“It takes away (from) some of the other things I have to pay for,” Glenn said. “I gotta cut back on some things just to get back and forth to work.”
Glenn said he places blame on the Trump administration, specifically the war in Iran.
“It’s uncalled for, and we’re the ones who suffer, the working class,” he said.
Another Amaoco customer, April Fordham of Detroit, said she doesn’t know who to blame, but called the current prices “outrageous. It’s unaffordable and it needs to stop.”
“We ain’t in California,” she said. “We’re almost at California prices!”
Some Detroiters are finding creative ways to at least feel like they’re saving a few dollars. Take Apples Jones, who said she doesn’t let her tank get lower than half full.
“To me, it feels like I’m saving a little money,” Jones said, adding that the price spike is “hard not only on our pockets financially but on us mentally.”
Which states have higher gas prices than Michigan?
Nationally, a gallon of regular unleaded gas costs an average of $4.39 on Friday, according to AAA. The price is also up 9 cents from Thursday, 34 cents more than last week’s average, and 33 cents higher than a month ago.
GasBuddy reported the national average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gas on Friday is $4.41. That’s about the same from Thursday, but up 34.5 cents from last week, and about 33 cents higher from $4.08 last month.
A spike in oil prices has pushed the national average for a gallon of regular gas up nearly 30 cents, AAA officials said on Thursday.
“After ticking down for nearly two weeks, gas prices are going back up again with the national average seeing a 27-cent hike in one week,” the company said in a statement. “The national average is $1.12 higher than it was this time last year, as oil prices surge above $100/barrel with no indication of when the Strait of Hormuz will reopen. Gas prices are the highest they’ve been in four years, since late July 2022.”
AAA said gasoline demand rose last week from 9.05 million barrels per day to 9.10 million. Meanwhile, total domestic gasoline supply decreased from 228.4 million barrels to 222.3 million. Furthermore, gasoline production decreased last week, averaging 9.8 million barrels per day, it said.
AAA also said the country’s top 10 most expensive gasoline markets are California at $6.01 per gallon, Hawaii at $5.64, Washington at $5.57, Oregon at $5.15, Nevada at $5.12, Alaska at $4.92, Arizona at $4.67, Illinois at $4.66, Michigan at $4.58, and Ohio at $4.46.
The company said the top 10 U.S. markets for the cheapest gas are Oklahoma at $3.70, Kansas at $3.75, Georgia at $3.75, Mississippi at $3.77, Arkansas at $3.79, Louisiana at $3.80, Missouri at $3.83, North Dakota at $3.84, Texas at $3.85, and Alabama at $3.86.
Staff Writers George Hunter and Max Bryan contributed.
cramirez@detroitnews.com
@CharlesERamirez
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Michigan gas price relief on way? Expert says they won’t go higher
Reporting by Charles E. Ramirez and Max Reinhart, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
