(WXMI) — Gas prices continue to steadily decline throughout the state as we head into Labor Day weekend.
“Gas prices have continued to decline now for 11 straight weeks in West Michigan," says GasBuddy Head of Petroleum Analysis Patrick DeHaan.
Motorists are finally seeing relief at the pump, and experts are pleasantly surprised.
"Considering the BP Whiting Refinery has been down for the last week, we're in a pretty good position,” says DeHann. “The governor had suggested that supply disruptions were imminent; that did not happen."
GasBuddy attributes some of the credit to drivers for refraining from panic buying gas once prices started to rise.
"Thankfully, because many motorists avoided panicking and going out and filling their tanks up, we're going to be dealing with falling prices over the holiday weekend and really no supply issues," DeHann explains. "Otherwise, we could have seen supply disruptions and higher prices. So certainly, some good news going into the holiday weekend."
The national average price of gas currently sits at $3.79 a gallon, which is $0.05 lower than it was last week and $0.35 lower than it was a month ago.
Prices are even lower in West Michigan.
At time of writing, prices per gallon were:
- $3.43 in Zeeland
- $3.59 in Walker
- $3.69 in Newaygo
- $3.75 in Lake Odessa
At first, experts were worried a fire at the Midwest’s largest oil refinery would impact supply. BP intends to partially resume fuel production the refinery in Whiting, Indiana, by Sunday.
Michigan was scheduled to transition to winter fuel in a couple of weeks but the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) permitted the switch to harsher gas ahead of time to prevent disruption in supply from getting worse.
"The good news is that winter gasoline — the components that go into it — are a little bit cheaper. And so therefore, when we roll back to winter gasoline, there may be a slight price drop as a result."
For those planning to drive out of state over the holiday weekend, here are a few things to expect:
"Ohio — really close to similar — they saw a small price increase as well to $3.69,” DeHaan tells us. “So prices, they're very similar to Michigan; Indiana is a little higher and Illinois is much higher. Wisconsin, generally a little bit lower as well."
And while supply didn’t experience any disruptions from hurricanes in the Atlantic this August, experts warn that could change.
"All it would take is one small hurricane or maybe a midsize hurricane that shuts down refineries to see prices perk up, so we're still susceptible to weather."
Despite those concerns, GasBuddy says the downward trend in gas prices are expected to continue.
"So I am hopeful that prices will continue to moderate through the weekend and into next week when we come back,” says DeHaan. “But it's not impossible. Oil prices are up sharply today on the possibility that OPEC could cut production. So that's something to keep an eye on. But by and large, I do expect fall and into the winter we'll see lower prices than we did for spring and summer."