INSIDE LOOK: Minnesota oil refinery breaks down rising gas prices, when costs could drop

Minnesota gas prices are running below the national average in part because crude oil pipelines reach the state directly from Canada and North Dakota. 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS anchor Chris Egert was granted access to the Pine Bend Refinery in Dakota County, where workers produce seven million gallons of gas per day.

The refinery, which is well over twice the size of the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, can fill 500,000 15-gallon tanks every single day.

It’s one of three operated by Flint Hills Resources, a refining and chemicals company owned by Koch Incorporated.

Pine Bend is the largest refinery in a non-oil-producing state in the U.S., and pipelines carrying crude oil from Alberta and North Dakota reach Minnesota first and then split off to the Twin Cities.

“We are geographically blessed to be here in Minnesota. I know it doesn’t seem that way in the winter, but we really are,” Flint Hills Resources V...