More pain at the pump ahead

ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – All across Minnesota gas prices are starting to creep back up and experts are projecting the spring and summer will have you digging deeper into your wallet.

For the 4th straight week gas prices have been on rise. Here in southeast Minnesota the prices have climbed nearly thirty cents in the past two weeks with the local average hovering around three dollars and forty cents. The national average is climbing up ten cents to three dollars and thirty nine cents.

In additional concerns over prices rising, releases of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve has come to an end.

Concerns are now that without additional oil, supply will tighten in the weeks ahead, especially as the nation starts to move away from softer demand in the winter.

All of this while refineries are still trying to come back on-line after last months brutal cold blast.

“While some refineries have returned to service others have sustained damage. That needs to be addressed before refineries can re-open. That’s why gas prices have been climbing. Refineries have lost time with outages and some of them have not returned to service,” explained Gas Buddy petroleum expert Patrick De Haan.

He says this next bitter blast could hurt those refinery repairs and he’s predicting four dollars per gallon gas before Memorial Day.