Hurricane sends gas prices soaring

The Gulf Coast of Texas is about 3,000 kilometres away, but we’re feeling Hurricane Harvey here.

And it could get even worse by the long weekend.

The price of gasoline has jumped considerably in Peter borough, and it will likely go higher as Harvey hits Gulf Coast oil refineries, according to analyst Dan McTeague.

As of Wednesday night, most stations in Peter borough were reporting prices in the 104.9-109.9 cents range.

McTeague said Wednesday that Peterborough prices could go up three cents on Thursday and another five cents on Friday -just as people hit the road for the Labour Day weekend.

“Almost one-third of gasoline production will be offline so you can imagine prices are going to be the first thing to give and they are doing that already,” he told Postmedia Network.

“This story will go on for the entire month of September and it will mean higher prices than what we are paying now on average and that will probably maintain with higher prices for the entire month of September until refineries can get back up and running.”

McTeague’s advice is simple: “Hope for the best, but brace for the worst.”

“Within a week or so, if the prices don’t move high enough then we are going to be dealing with shortages and disruption sin the United States,” he said.

NOTES: A couple gas bars at Curve Lake First Nation had prices at 99.9 cents as of Wednesday night.... See related coverage on Page B4.