Refinery down time being felt at pump

Drivers here seem resigned to gas near $3 through summer

Gasoline prices are up, refineries are down and drivers are caught in the middle.

Prices are topping $3 a gallon in many parts of the country, and rising in Houston. A hike at the pump is typical at the beginning of summer as Americans begin vacation travel and refiners produce costlier fuel blends for high-temperature driving.


But the pattern is aggravated at least partly by operational issues at U.S. oil refineries, which have put kinks in portions of the nation’s vast gasoline-producing network.

U.S. refiners operated at 89 percent of capacity during the last week of April, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration. The April average has dipped that low only once before in the past 15 years, the agency said.

Houston Chronicle