An energy analyst for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Brian Crowe, says the tight supplies of gas in the midwest could be easing soon. Crowe says they’ve heard the refinery in Kansas that was shut down by flooding will be back running sooner than anticipated, along with other refineries in the midwest coming back on-line.
Crowe says Iowa’s been caught in a back-and-forth game when it comes to gas supplies and prices. He says the refineries are coming back on-line, getting more fuel into the market, then other refineries would go down with mechanical or other type of problem. Crowe says nationwide use of gasoline hasn’t gone down despite prices over three dollars a gallon.
"Demand has continued to go up, even as we’ve seen these record high prices this year," Bian Crowe says, "It’s really surprising when we look at the whole picture." Gas prices in Iowa averaged $3.10 a gallon in the latest D-N-R survey, up from $2.92 a gallon in June.
Crowe says diesel fuel saw a bump of its own in the latest survey. He says the price of diesel is up a bit, but is still less than the price of gasoline. Crowe says traditionally diesel has been 30 to 40 cents more than gas, but lately diesel has been running 10 to 15 cents less than gas. Diesel fuel average $2.95 in the latest survey.