As gas prices continue to climb, some parts of the metro are starting to see some stations have surpassed – or are near – the $4 per gallon mark.

According to AAA, gas prices in Minnesota jumped about five cents on average overnight Thursday and into Friday. In just the last week, prices have gone up nearly 15 cents.

GasBuddy said as of late Friday morning a Kwik Trip in Vadnais Heights, a Speedway in both Little Canada and West St. Paul, a BP in Richfield, a Minnoco in Rosemount, as well as a Casey’s in both North Branch and Waconia all had a price of $4.09 per gallon. Meanwhile, other gas stations had prices of $3.59 per gallon.

In addition, GasBuddy says throughout the next several days, drivers will see prices spike anywhere from 50 cents to $1 per gallon. It adds a refinery outage may be to blame for the price increase, which may last until the change to winter gasoline, which happens later this month.

The price at the pump went up as much as 40 cents in some spots in Minnesota, exceeding $4/gallon on Friday and those costs could continue to rise.

Patrick De Haan, the head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy, initially warned on Thursday of a spike anywhere from 50 cents to a dollar per gallon over the next couple of days in Midwest states.

“The good news is that we can narrow that range down now to more like 35 to 65 cents,” he said in an interview on Friday morning.

“What brought us here was just a big squeeze as we start to navigate the change back to cheaper winter gasoline. A lot of refineries are only producing winter gasoline now but the problem is, in the interim, that can lead to some squeezes here before the changeover happens. And that’s exactly what happened,” De Hann explained. “A couple of refineries went down, both for planned and unplanned maintenance. And that’s why we got a sudden squeeze.”

It’s as simple as supply and demand, he said.

“And a lot of people like to point fingers elsewhere, but it’s just the system we have,” De Haan said. “It’s not perfect, and it can cost you and I much more.”

It’s hitting other businesses too, like local carpet installer William Stryker who was filling up at a Minneapolis pump for $4.19 on Friday.

“My fuel’s doubled on a yearly basis,” Stryker said. “And not only that, now I have to raise the price on people’s carpet because I don’t have the money to put gas in our cars, and I have to have a van to move carpet.”

“This is still a rare situation, it shouldn’t happen very often,” De Haan said. “But again, the outlook for refining is not good. These issues could become more frequent, as refineries start to exit the business and shut down ahead of the transition to EVs.”

The prices should stabilize and begin to decrease by the end of the weekend or early next week, he said.