Gasoline prices may have leveled off in Kansas City, following a dramatic one-week leap in the cost of fuel. Multiple factors come into play to set prices into summer driving months.
A Survey of prices Sunday by GasBuddy.com calculated the price averaging $3.84 a gallon was 52 cents higher than the same day in 2012 and up 64 cents from a month ago.
Slowing of production at two refineries in Oklahoma and East Central Kansas could have started the price climb, according to some industry observers.
A senior petroleum analyst at the parent website, http://kcgasprices.com/, Patrick DeHaan noted a 24 cent a gallon jump in the last week, “going back to 2008 when gas prices really started to increase significantly, this is probably one of the largest if not the largest single week increases we’ve seen in the Kansas City area.”
DeHaan said problems with refineries, especially in the Great Lakes region, have made supply very tight.
He looks to a drop in prices sometime in June, because the wholesale prices have dropped a dime a gallon.
For that reason, DeHaan credits suppliers from outside the region being attracted by high prices.