Michigan gas prices continued to rise on Thursday, according to experts.
The state’s average price of regular unleaded gasoline on Thursday is $4.58, about 33 cents higher than the day before, AAA-The Auto Group reports. It’s also 71 cents higher than a week ago, when the average was $3.87 per gallon, AAA said.
A year ago, the average was $3.23 per gallon, according to the auto insurer.
The highest recorded average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in Michigan was $5.22, which was reached on June 11, 2022, according to AAA data.
GasBuddy, the Dallas-based tech company that tracks fuel prices, also said Michigan gas prices on Thursday averaged about $4.64 per gallon for regular unleaded. That compares with $4.58 on Wednesday.
Prices reached $4.99 per gallon on Wednesday in some parts of Metro Detroit, according to GasBuddy. It reported $4.99 per gallon at gas stations in Troy, Brighton, and Grand Blanc, as well as several locations in the Toledo, Ohio, area.
The firm said the average price on Thursday was about 67 cents higher than last week’s average, $3.96 per gallon.
GasBuddy said the Thursday price is also up about a $1.39 from last year’s average, $3.24.
Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy’s head of petroleum analysis, said Wednesday on X that “#Gas prices appear to be rising to $4.99/gal in #Michigan today. This is a price cycle to an elevated amount due to the Iran situation and refinery issues.”
Earlier in the week, De Haan said refinery issues and scheduled maintenance in the Great Lakes region are expected to keep prices elevated for consumers in the Midwest.
BP’s 440,000-barrel-per-day oil refinery in Whiting, Indiana, over the weekend experienced a brief power outage that caused one of its processing units to be shut down.
Phillips 66’s 356,000-barrel-per-day Wood River refinery in Illinois took its crude oil unit and some other parts of the refinery offline at the end of February for a 45-day maintenance period.
Marathon Petroleum’s 253,000-bpd Robinson refinery in Illinois also began planned maintenance in mid-March, with units expected to remain offline until mid-May.
“Many inland states — including those in the Great Lakes and Plains — could see average gas prices climb to their highest levels since 2022, while price-cycling markets may also experience another round of hikes in the next few days,” De Haan said Monday.
Meanwhile, a gallon of regular unleaded gas costs an average of $4.30 on Thursday nationally, according to AAA. That compares with $4.22 on Wednesday and $4.03 last week. A year ago, a gallon of regular unleaded cost an average of $3.18.
The highest recorded average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in the U.S. was $5.01, reached on June 14, 2022, the company said.
GasBuddy said the national average price of a gallon of unleaded fuel on Thursday is up slightly to $4.31 from the previous day. Last week, the price averaged $4.04. Last year, the average price was $3.17, about $1.14 lower than Thursday.
cramirez@detroitnews.com
@CharlesERamirez
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Michigan, U.S. gas prices climb again
Reporting by Charles E. Ramirez, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
