KAMLOOPS, B.C. – Gasoline prices have been down over the summer thanks to a plunge in oil prices, but a senior analyst at the consumer website gasbuddy.com warns a change is on the way.
Dan McTeague predicts motorists from Thunder Bay to British Columbia will be paying more when gas prices jump as much as five to seven cents a litre.
He says speculators are pushing up the wholesale price of gas by 4.5 cents per litre.
The hike is partly due to seasonal maintenance at several Midwest U.S. refineries, but McTeague says a major production problem at a Husky refinery in Toledo, Ohio, is the root cause.
He notes the hike is even more unexpected because Oct. 16 is the first full day of the switch from summer-blended gasoline to winter-blended fuel, which is much cheaper to make.
McTeague believes motorists around Metro Vancouver and on Vancouver Island won’t feel the brunt of the increase because gas for that region comes from refineries in the Pacific Northwest. (CHNL)