TULSA, Okla. — Drivers in Green Country had to do a double-take going to work this week after gas prices jumped more than 40 cents in some areas.
Oil and gas prices tend to trickle downward once the summer travel season ends.
We're now past labor day, yet prices now average almost 40 cents higher than last week in oklahoma.
"Yeah the prices went up, and that sucks!" Penny Hawkins told 2 News at one gas station.
"It goes up and down a lot so you never know when it's gonna stay steady or anything," Jacob Vogt said.
Tulsa County is above the state average in gas prices as of Tuesday afternoon, according to GasBuddy.
So what gives?
"There was (planned) plant maintenance at a refinery in Minnesota, coupled with an outage in Ponca City at Phillips 66 refinery...coupled with the fact that another major refinery in northwest Indiana is also having a crude unit down - all culminated in a massive spike in the wholesale price of gasoline," GasBuddy petroleum analyst Patrick De Haan told 2 News.
De Haan said it's been an unlucky gas price summer made worse by different factors.
"Because of the squeeze between now and the time that we transition back to cheaper winter gasoline, and so that has hit retail prices. Every retailer has seen their costs go up dramatically."
The key question drivers like Vogt and Hawkins want to know is how long the high prices will last.
"There's gonna be a temporary delay to those falling prices," De Haan added. "But I do suspect once the transition back to winter happens this Saturday that's going to very quickly increase the amount of available gasoline in the supply chain link for the next few weeks."
That might not matter to some drivers like Ron Warrior though.
"Either way I'm losing," Warrior said. "If the gas goes down I'm gonna be paying for gas regardless."
De Haan adds hurricane season is still here and storms can cause disruptions if they strike close to important refinery or shipping areas.
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