Gas prices in Fond du Lac jump as much as .35 cents Monday despite national average falling. Here’s why

While gas prices are falling nationwide, some regional spikes in the Great Lakes region occurred Monday, October 20, 2025, as effects of a refinery fire on Friday in Whiting, Indiana… the largest in the Midwest, made their way to the pump.

Experts said they expected to see an increase of about .25 cents per gallon but Fond du Lac residents were hit even harder than this as prices jumped as much as .35 cents per gallon on Monday.

The fire and a subsequent operational incident were caused by a power disruption at the plant.

Multiple units were forced offline, including the crude distillation, vacuum distillation, and fluid catalytic cracking units. These outages caused significant flaring as a safety measure to relieve pressure. Flaring is a safety measure that burns off excess or unwanted combustible gases, which can build up during emergencies. It’s used to safely dispose of gases that are too dangerous to release directly into the atmosphere.

This 440,000 barrel per day facility, originally built in the 1880s, has had other issues over the last couple of years. The most recent was in August when the refinery shut down temporarily due to severe thunderstorms.

Plant officials say the facility should be back operational in a week so the gas price hike should be back to within the national average within 2 weeks.