If you thought we got lucky on the long weekend by avoiding the price gouge at the pump, it turns out the hike just was a few days after the nation’s birthday party.
Residents across the Okanagan woke up to a 10 cent price increase for regular gasoline, Wednesday morning.
On Tuesday regular gas was sitting at about $1.35 up and down the valley except for the Shuswap where the price has fluctuated above $1.40 for a few weeks — now the pump price is about $147.9.
However Dan McTeague of the popular GasBuddy website isn’t blaming the long weekend for the price rise, instead noting it’s usually due to operating margins in many cases as gas stations will hold their prices — sometimes below cost — until a competitor breaks the trend, and then everyone matches that new price.
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During Premier John Horgan’s media availability at the BC Legislature, he was asked about the overnight increase to gasoline prices in some markets, including the Lower Mainland which also saw a spike in price this morning.
Jump in gasoline prices is company profit taking says @jjhorgan #bcpoli #bcleg pic.twitter.com/Ueav2W2Ikk
— Tom Fletcher (@tomfletcherbc) July 4, 2018
While the BC Liberal Party took the opportunity to slam Horgan over the recent gas tax with Andrew Wilkinson saying the government “should be reducing costs for drivers”, McTeague took it one step further calling Horgan’s answer “clueless”, before pointing out that Wednesday’s spike was more due in part to the price of oil rising nine dollars in the past 10 days.
Clueless. I guess the near $9 a barrel jump in WTI in the past 10 days (from $65 a barrel to $74 a barrel) is just plain old gouging. Your Premier is clearly disconnected from reality https://t.co/VkiJBBs2vc
— Dan McTeague (@GasBuddyDan) July 4, 2018
According to McTeague, the price of crude oil is picking back up and the West Texas Intermedia (WTI) is reaching over the $74.50 level.
The rise in oil can be attributed to a constrained supply in Libya and the outage at the oil-sands facility in Fort McMurray last month that is rumoured to remain offline until the end of July.
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McTeague also Tweeted earlier in the day the that the price jump at the pump is ‘reflecting a restoration of lost retail operating margins’.
According to McTeague wholesale price for gasoline in the Okanagan is $1.35 a litre, but ‘gasbars have no choice but to raise (the price) unless they can cross subsidize and recoup with in-store purchases’.
Good catch Bob. Wholesale price for gasoline in the Okanagan is $1.35 a litre. Current 134.4 or 133.4 cpl is below cost selling. Gasbars have no choice but to raise, unless they can crosssunsidize and recoup with instore purchases https://t.co/XNjWECTd7a
— Dan McTeague (@GasBuddyDan) July 4, 2018
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The Gas Buddy author also Tweeted there is a possibility of a 2 cent drop happening on Thursday.
So, maybe hold off fuelling up till tomorrow if you can.
@Jen_zee
jen.zielinski@bpdigital.ca
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