Low gas inventory in Midwest pushes Indiana price average near $4/gallon
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The average gas price in Indiana has increased more than a quarter a gallon in the past week, and a shortage of gasoline is to blame, an energy analyst says.
Patrick De Haan with GasBuddy.com on Monday predicted Indiana’s average gas price would be rising to $3.99 per gallon this week.
As of 7:55 p.m. Tuesday, the average price for gasoline in Indiana was $3.955 a gallon. That’s up 27.6 cents from last week’s average, and up 83.6 cents from a year ago.
In Hancock County, east of Indianapolis, at 7:55 p.m. Tuesday, the average price per gallon was $4.004. That’s the highest of all the counties in the Indianapolis metropolitan area.
De Haan last week said the Midwest inventory for gasoline is very low due to refinery outages. That’s causing gas price increases not only in Indiana, but also in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Missouri and Kansas.
The energy analyst says Hurricane Ian is not impacting gas prices in the Midwest, but is affected the cost for drivers in the states on the Gulf of Mexico, where the storm was forcing evacuations this week.