Weird refinery economics—gas futures up, oil flat, gas prices down/up...

[cthulu2016]

New Jersey refines about 6% of our gasoline, and a lot of that refining capacity was taken off-line.

So oil prices had no reason to rise. After all, refinery demand was down. And oil futures prices, as opposed to gasoline futures, have been unaffected by Sandy.

Meanwhile, gasoline futures spiked because of lower refining capacity. Less gas made = higher prices.

But demand for gasoline cratered as a big part of the country didn't drive anywhere for a while. Public buses not running, trucks not delivering, etc.. In some places gas became cheaper. In others, more expensive.

Overall, national gas prices declined.

So many moving parts.

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http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2012/10/31/hurricane-sandy-splits-energy-markets-as-gasoline-spikes-on-refinery-outages/

[ProfessorGAC]

1. They Dropped Here

And not by a little. They went down about 4% since the storm. I know the market was closed for a couple days, but the commodity markets in Chicago were still open. I haven't seen prices this low at the Citgo by my house for years.