Gas prices in parts of Metro Vancouver surged to more than $1.40 a litre overnight.
The price of a litre of gas rose as high as $1.429 in parts of Vancouver on Sunday morning, after a nine-cent-per-litre increase on Thursday. A week prior, prices were less than $1.30 per litre.
On Wednesday, fuel analyst Dan McTeague of GasBuddy.com said he suspects the recent spikes are due to the turnaround time for the Phillips 66 Ferndale refinery just south of the border in Washington state being delayed. Speculators are concerned there isn’t enough gasoline with such high demand.
“The problem in the United States becomes a major headache for motorists here in Vancouver, mostly because we are very dependent on outside sources to get our gasoline and our diesel,” he said. “This one refinery happens to produce 160,000 barrels a day. We import well over half of our gasoline here in Vancouver.”
WATCH: Gas prices rising across Canada
McTeague said most gas stations are still making a fair income, keeping in mind they also run convenience stores. In Vancouver, it costs gas stations seven cents to cover their costs; anything above that is going straight into their pocket, but McTeague said they are not at fault for the rising prices.
Not only is gas getting more expensive, in some parts of the city it’s getting harder to find. There is now only one gas station in downtown Vancouver following the closure of the Chevron station on West Georgia Street near Stanley Park on Wednesday.
The Esso station at Burrard and Davie streets is the only remaining gas station in the downtown core.
WATCH: One gas station left in Downtown Vancouver
– With files from Simran Gill and Amy Judd
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