After a spike of around 10 cents per litre last week, the price of gas in Metro Vancouver is expected to drop by as much as 21 cents by Wednesday, according to one industry analyst.
“Christmas may very well come early for Vancouver drivers to hold off till Wednesday morning,” Dan McTeague with Gas Wizard said.
Last week, McTeague predicted prices would stay high for some time, but now says we could see a drop to 184 cents per litre because of a major regulatory change in California.
“Primarily because the state of California decided to allow all gasoline imported into that state to be made available for sale,” he said.
“California has a very strict, very rigorous fuel standard and with the supply issue, a serious problem with two refineries partially shutting down and some refineries going to maintenance. It was bringing the significant crimp on supply not just in California, but pretty much all along the west coast.”
McTeague says we saw a similar drop a year ago as summer turned to fall and summer blends of gasoline were switched to winter.
Despite the upcoming Thanksgiving long weekend in Canada, McTeague does not expect another significant increase like the one experienced last week.
“If anything, we might actually see a slight increase or prices remaining the same. I saw increase because we bought a bit of a break today because the Canadian dollar isn’t being traded today.”