Gas prices up sharply in California due to 'maintenance and repairs'

[Newsjock]

Source: San Jose Mercury News

This week came as a painful surprise to anyone filling up with gas.

Prices have soared by as much as 16 cents a gallon at some Bay Area stations since Monday, as several refiners in California have reduced production for maintenance and repairs. It's a West Coast-only trend, as prices nationally continue to ease, with crude oil prices on Friday falling below $100 a barrel for the first time since early February.

"BP, Tesoro, Shell and ConocoPhillips all have refining units shut for extended maintenance or repairs," said Brian Milne, an analyst at commodity tracker Telvent DTN. "California's processing rate compared with refining capacity is in the 70 percent range as a result, which is very low. Compares with mid-80 percent range nationally."

... The state average stood at $4.19 a gallon on Friday. While that's just a two-cent increase from Thursday, it doesn't reflect the biggest increases that hit Friday.

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/traffic/ci_20550646/gas-prices-rise-bay-area

[shanti]

1. tell me about it!

i don't buy gas often, because i only take the car out a couple of times a week to shop locally, so it's been a few months since i filled up. it cost me $73 to fill up, the most ever, and i'm in sacramento! i was stunned!

[DJ13]

2. Im always amazed how the oil industry gets away with this

Year after year they have "maintenance" which provides a convenient excuse to increase prices, and theres no oversight by the state to force them to have reserve facilities that would take up the slack when a refinery goes offline.

Also its rather coincidental that they always need "maintenance" when the price is beginning to decline.

[Bennyboy]

3. This isn't true....

I live in the Sacramento area and they have gone down for the past two weeks. From over 4 dollars 2 weeks ago to 3.81 (Just gassed the car) today.

[FreakinDJ]

4. Funny ... I work in Refinery Maintenance - I haven't heard of any shut downs ....

Would love to get back home and work in the Bay Area. Lately I've been working in Texas because there is no work out west

[hack89]

5. This is the time of the year California switches to summer time gas formulations

which also contributes to spring price spikes.

Since then, there have been sharp spikes in fuel prices every spring as summer blends get rolled out. This is not so much because it's expensive to make the gas—the added cost per gallon is only 1 or 2 cents—but because refineries generally try to sell every last bit of winter fuel before mixing in the slightly more expensive summer batch. Sometimes they draw down the stock too far, creating shortages before the first deliveries of summer blend enter the supply chain. The return to normal blends in the fall causes a far less pronounced spike because the industry, free from summer standards, doesn't bother selling off the summer gas before mixing in the less pricey stuff.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2004/04/what_is_summerblend_gas.html

[kestrel91316]

6. Funny how refineries always have to shut down for maintenance and repairs

right before summer vacation starts. Guess there's no way to plan in advance for that sort of thing. Vacations just occur randomly.......

[DCKit]

7. CA - Enron'd again. nt