Gas Prices Skyrocket Up to 27 Cents Across Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin
Midwest drivers hit with brutal fuel surge as pump prices leap overnight.
The Great Lakes Squeeze
Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin just got walloped with hikes hitting 27 cents per gallon—no slow creep here, just straight-up pump shock. Stations flipped signs faster than traders dump weak portfolios.
Numbers Don't Lie—They Hurt
That 27-cent jump isn't some analyst's fantasy; it's the brutal math hitting commuters and truckers alike. Perfect timing for peak travel season—because why not squeeze wallets when people just want to move?
Finance's Favorite Game: Your Pain, Their Gain
Meanwhile, some hedge fund manager is probably bragging about 'predicting the energy volatility play' over a gold-plated latte. Classic.
Whiting shutdown slams Midwest as Canton refinery stays offline
The Whiting facility, owned by BP, has a capacity of 435,000 barrels per day, and when it goes down, it hits the region’s supply fast. And this time, things are even tighter because Marathon Petroleum’s refinery in Canton, Ohio, is also out.
That plant, which processes 100,000 barrels per day, is undergoing scheduled maintenance that started earlier this month. The full turnaround is expected to last into early or mid-September. So now, the two most important regional plants are either down or running below normal capacity at the same time.
On top of that, Midwest gasoline inventories are already low. They’re sitting below both last year’s levels and the five-year seasonal average. That’s made everything worse, and even a full Whiting restart wouldn’t have fixed it in time for Labor Day. It’s too late. The gas that’s already in the system is all there is for now.
Meanwhile, oil futures just keep rising. Brent crude closed Monday at $68.80, up $1.07 or 1.58%. West Texas Intermediate ended the session at $64.80, climbing $1.14, or 1.79%.
The rally has been building since last week and shows no sign of slowing down. The reason is the growing risk of supply disruption from Russia as the war in Ukraine continues to escalate.
Sanctions, drone attacks and tariffs trigger more oil price pressure
Tensions in Eastern Europe have bled straight into oil markets again. U.S. President Donald TRUMP said Friday that if peace talks between Russia and Ukraine don’t produce results within two weeks, Washington will impose more sanctions on Moscow.
He also warned that India could face new tariffs for continuing to buy Russian crude. Trump’s approach has added pressure to an already fragile market that’s still reacting to physical attacks on Russian energy infrastructure.
Over the weekend, U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Russia had made “significant concessions” toward a deal. But on the ground, that hasn’t stopped Ukraine from ramping up its drone strikes. On Sunday, a drone attack caused a huge fire at the Ust-Luga fuel terminal.
Russian officials confirmed the blaze. Separately, a fire at the Novoshakhtinsk refinery, also linked to drone activity, was still burning on Sunday. That facility normally processes around 100,000 barrels per day for export.
Even with these disruptions, Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, said their impact on supply is being balanced by OPEC+. The group has been slowly reversing its earlier production cuts and is now adding barrels back into the market.
Eight members of OPEC+ are meeting on September 7 and are expected to approve another production increase. That’s not the only market-moving event on the calendar. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled on Friday that the Fed might cut interest rates in September.
That’s given investors a boost in risk appetite. But not everyone’s optimistic. Priyanka Sachdeva, a senior market analyst at Phillip Nova, said both oil benchmarks still look flat. She added that markets believe Trump’s tariffs will eventually hurt global growth, which could slow down fuel demand.
Want your project in front of crypto’s top minds? Feature it in our next industry report, where data meets impact.
