Lower Mainland motorists were dealt a seven-cent-a-litre shock in gasoline prices Friday as the market absorbed a double whammy of higher oil prices and a regional refinery shutdown.
Gasoline prices jumped overnight in the Lower Mainland to $1.40 a litre, and even higher at some stations.
International tension with Iran is causing supply concerns, and a fire last week that shut down BP PLC's Cherry Point refinery in Washington state has raised wholesale prices in the region, said Jason Parent, senior associate at The Kent Group, which tracks gasoline prices in Canada.
In the Lower Mainland, prices reached as high as $1.445 a litre at about 10 a.m. on Friday at a Richmond gas station at 22940 Westminster Hwy., according to price monitoring website Gasbuddy.com. The lowest reported price on Wednesday morning was $1.259 at a gas station in Aldergrove at 26391 Fraser Hwy.
Data supplied by the Kent Group shows the average price in Vancouver on Feb. 14 was $1.283, jumping to $1.347 on Feb. 21. The new prices Friday represented a 10-per-cent jump in just 10 days.
Vancouver has been hit harder than other areas of Canada because of the refinery fire, Parent said. A scan on Gasbuddy.com found the Vancouver average to be $1.40, while the national average was $1.27. The highest reported price in Toronto was $1.329, in Calgary it was $1.169 and in Montreal it was $1.419.
Gasoline prices typically tend to climb in the spring with a peak in the summer as demand increases.
Parent said he has heard some experts predict a 20-to 30-cent jump to $1.60 a litre in gasoline prices this spring.
The all-time high average gasoline price was $1.485 per litre, which Vancouver drivers saw in July 2008.
"We may get there this year," Parent said, but added that he thinks prices will come back down in Vancouver once the Washington state refinery has reopened.
Parent said he did not have any firm information on when the refinery would reopen, but that he expects it to be at least partly reopened soon, and he had heard the damage was not in the parts of the plant that produce automobile gasoline.
A call to BP to ask when the plant would reopen was not returned.
The refinery fire has driven up wholesale prices in Washington, which is affecting wholesale prices in the Lower Mainland.
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