WHITING | BP's Whiting Refinery has returned to its normal crude oil distillation capacity, but that doesn't mean consumers will see lower gasoline prices, company spokesman Scott Dean said.

"It's impossible to say if it will have any effect on pricing," he said. "Crude oil is 60 percent of the cost of gasoline. Consumer demand is another major factor. Additional supply helps, but you can't look at supply in isolation. Additional supply is always a good thing, but there are other variables that determine price."

Crude oil is trading at record levels, with the price Thursday at $104 a barrel, Dean said.

The refinery's capacity was curtailed when its smallest crude distillation unit was taken out of service during a power outage last April and then removed from service again for further repairs during the winter. The unit, which has a 95,000 barrel-a-day capacity, produces about 23.5 percent of the refinery's total capacity.

"Companies executives in London stated it would return to normal by end of first quarter and it achieved that objective a week ago," Dean said .

The refinery ran at about half-to-two-thirds of full capacity last summer because of the crude distillation unit couldn't process heavy crude until the additional repairs were made and because a pipe distillation unit damaged in a March fire was under repair, Dean said. That unit came back on line during the fall.

"It's an old refinery," Dean said. "That's why the company wants to invest $3.8 billion in its modernization."