It’s been a forgettable Friday the 13th in Edmonton. Not only was a record broken for consecutive days with a temperature of 0 C or below, but gas prices increased significantly.
The price of gas jumped by 10 cents a litre to $1.26 or $1.27 a litre overnight at many stations around the city.
GasBuddy.com petroleum analyst Dan McTeague said there are several factors causing the increase, including an increase in the price of oil from $62 to $67 per barrel and cold temperatures across Canada causing refineries to run their spring maintenance later than usual.
“It looks like at least one, perhaps two of the refineries here in Edmonton are going through a form of springtime maintenance,” McTeague said. “That means some of their production and their units are offline and may be so for the next several weeks.”
READ MORE: Trans Mountain fiasco could worsen pain at the pump for all Canadians this summer
McTeague said the Chicago market is also an important factor in determining gas prices across Western Canada because that’s where the benchmark is set for prices. And Chicago has experienced a 10 to 11 cent per gallon increase over the past nine to 10 days.
LISTEN BELOW: GasBuddy.com Senior Petroleum Analyst, Dan McTeague talks rising gas prices in Edmonton on the 630 CHED Afternoon News
“When prices go up or down there based on economics there, representing a population probably 10 times our size from Ohio in the east all the way to the Rockies in the west, that really has a direct impact on the price we pay out of Edmonton,” he said.
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McTeague said the good news for Edmontonians is that gas prices will decrease by the end of the weekend to $1.20 per litre.
However, he doesn’t believe there will be a significant decrease in prices through the summer. The analyst predicts prices in Edmonton will remain between $1.15 and $1.30 a litre.
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