A few years back there was shut down in the mid west. Prices here jumped. Then, later than year one of our refineries shut down. They explained that gas here was independent of prices in the midwest as they could not move the gas around.
If that is the truth, then as other areas shut their refineries down, shouldn't there be an increase in available crude, resulting values dropping.

Years ago I saw an report of gas costing something like 30 cents more on average in the Eureka area than in the bay area. This, despite the all the gas in the bay area originating in the Eureka area and being shipped up. The gas stations all insisted there was no price fixing and that all the stations set their price independently, but had no explanation on how it could cost so much less after shipping than locally.