The high gas prices that socked motorists this week resulted from a chronic shortage of oil refining capacity, a petroleum expert said Friday. . . . More recently, the shortage of refinery capacity has been aggravated by problems at several of the nation’s major refineries, including one that serves the Tri-State. A fire damaged the Tosco Corp. refinery in Wood River, Ill., near St. Louis last weekend, disrupting supplies throughout the area. “That one spike was enough to drive prices up 10 cents (per gallon) over the past few days,” said Hanshaw. In addition, problems have been reported at several other refineries in the United States and abroad, according to a story in Friday’s Wall Street Journal. The Journal article said a power outage curbed production at a refinery owned by Marathon Ashland Petroleum in St. Paul, Minn., while problems at a major refinery in Venezuela also disrupted gasoline supplies in the United States.

Evansville Courier Press

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), May 05, 2001