Gasoline shortage fuels big price hike in Lower Mainland
Gasoline prices are climbing toward historic highs in the Lower Mainland.
Prices were as high as $1.42.9 at dozens of gas stations Sunday from Vancouver to Surrey, Coquitlam and Maple Ridge. That is a 13-cent price hike from just a week ago, and 29 cents more than what motorists paid a year ago.
And the reason? There’s not enough of it, according to Dan McTeague at gasbuddy.com, a website that tracks gas prices across North America.
“There are very few sellers of gasoline in the Pacific Northwest market,” McTeague said Sunday. “There’s just not enough to go around.”
And the tenuous supply has been made even worse with two refineries in the region shut down for maintenance.
McTeague said that the Phillips 66 refinery in Ferndale, Wash., has been down for maintenance for just over two weeks, after the initial shutdown was extended for another week.
McTeague said the market could withstand one shutdown, but BP’s refinery at Cherry Point, Wash., will also shut down for maintenance Monday. And maintenance at the Blaine, Wash., refinery has shut down the Olympic pipeline that delivers fuel around the Pacific Northwest, McTeague said.
As far as relief goes, it’s not known how much or how soon it will come. When one refinery comes back and adds to the overall production, there will eventually be a dip in price but if not, watch for an uphill climb in prices.
“If you don’t like $1.42.9 you will be adding another two cents to that mid-week,” he said.
If you want to track down the cheapest gas in the Lower Mainland, you will have the most luck in Abbotsford and parts east, because prices there aren’t subject to an 11-cent transit tax.
McTeague said the highest price for a litre of gas in Vancouver was set in 2013, when it was over $1.50.
According to gasbuddy.com, the price for a litre of gas in Swan River, Man., is currently 95.9 cents and in Toronto it’s 99.9 cents.