Michigan Gasoline Rises 17 Cents; ExxonMobil Joliet Reformer Goes Offline

Michigan’s regular gasoline average rose 17 cents to $4.61 a gallon on Oct. 22, with gains in three other Midwestern states during the same period as an ExxonMobil refinery outage in Illinois.

Michigan had the largest jump, at 17 cents to $4.61 per gallon. Ohio’s average rose 10 cents to $4.08, Indiana’s climbed 8 cents to $3.88 and Illinois’ gained 2.5 cents to $4.67.

At ExxonMobil’s Joliet refinery, a catalytic reformer rated for 50,000 barrels per day went offline Oct. 20. Stack activity declined and flaring increased that day. The facility can produce about 11 million gallons of gasoline and diesel a day, with pipelines serving Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

“We’re working to resolve an operational issue. The safety of the community and our workforce remains our primary focus,” an ExxonMobil spokesperson said.

The statewide daily averages show price movement but do not isolate how much, if any, the outage contributed.