Oklahomans to pay (dearly) at the pump

Gasoline and travel experts usually advise holiday travelers to fill up the gas tanks before leaving Oklahoma.

Not this weekend.

Travelers headed south or east during the Labor Day weekend might find prices as much as 30 cents a gallon cheaper just across the state line.

Prices throughout the Plains and much of the Midwest are far above the national average.

Industry analysts blame the higher prices in the region on a series of refinery outages, a Coffeyville, Kan., refinery that flooded earlier this summer, a large refinery outage in Illinois and the fire at the Wynnewood refinery in late spring.

"Coffeyville is right there in the center of the Midwestern area, so a disruption there causes problems throughout the region,” said Bruce Bell, chairman emeritus of the Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association of Oklahoma. "That's causing us to bring gasoline in from out of state and out of the region much more so than normal.”

The situation is heightened because it is more difficult to move fuel throughout the country in the summer because the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires dozens of specially blended fuels for parts of the nation, Bell said. The summer blends are required until Sept. 15.

What are the prices?

•Nationwide, the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline was $2.76 on Wednesday.

•Oklahomans paid an average of 8 cents more at $2.84 a gallon.

•The average price in Oklahoma City was nearly $2.85.

•Tulsans paid an average price of $2.82.

•North Dakota held the highest statewide average price in the Lower 48 at more than $3.07 a gallon. North Dakota on Wednesday received a 20-day waiver from the EPA, allowing suppliers to import gasoline from Canada.

•In Texas, the average price for gasoline was $2.66 on Wednesday.

•Arkansas averaged $2.67.

•Missouri weighed in at $2.69.

Contracts limit purchases

Chris Newton, president of the Texas Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association, also attributed the price discrepancy to refinery problems in Oklahoma, Kansas and the Midwest.

"The current disparity between fuel prices in Oklahoma and Texas is marked by limited supplies attempting to address demand for fuels,” he said. "There is just not a lot of excess product available in today's wholesale market.”

Suppliers in Oklahoma and other parts of the region are limited in how much fuel they can buy from Texas, Arkansas and other lower-priced areas because of contracts, he said. Most of the terminals in north Texas are dedicated to the Dallas region.