Vancouver gas prices are expected to break the all-time record high this week, according to petroleum analysts.
Gas prices set a new record in the city on July 1, 2021, reaching 173.9 cents per litre. While prices fell steadily after that, they've started climbing up again this week.
Dan McTeague, the President of Canadians for Affordable Energy (and formerly of GasBuddy.com), tweeted that he expects local gas prices will soar past the record on Friday; the analyst predicts that prices will reach $1.77 per litre Friday.
Additionally, McTeague predicts that 2022 fuel prices will rise an additional 20 per cent between February and May, which will also "hit food prices."
Gasoline prices rose by roughly $0.14 per litre in the Lower Mainland between Dec. 22, 2021 and Jan. 1, 2022, when they hit $1.69 per litre. Metro Vancouver has seen those kinds of price spikes before, but they typically happen in the summertime, when demand for gasoline is higher, not in the wintertime.
In mid-November, gasoline supplies were interrupted when flooding that took out roads and bridges resulted in the Trans Mountain pipeline — which supplies roughly a third of the gasoline and diesel to southwestern B.C. — being shut down as a precaution. That led to the Parkland refinery shutting down as well.
The Trans Mountain pipeline resumed operation on Dec. 5, and the Parkland refinery began ramping back up on Dec. 11.
But refining capacity isn’t the only thing that affects the price at the pumps — so do oil prices and supplies, and McTeague predicts North America could be in for a gasoline price shock by summer.
With files from Nelson Bennett / Business In Vancouver
