Gas prices could go well past $2 per litre in May: analyst

There is no relief in sight for drivers experiencing pain at the pumps in Southern Ontario, according to one analyst.

Dan McTeague, president of Canadians for Affordable Energy, said it is likely that prices will push past the $2 mark, and keep on climbing this month.

The analyst told Global News that drivers could expect to pay as much as $2.10 per litre in Toronto and the rest of Southern Ontario sometime in the next two weeks.

He said it would take a significant change in Russia’s war against Ukraine to offer any relief for the supply crunch he said is pushing prices up.

“I think we’re looking at another 10 cents (but) we have to wait for what happens Monday,” McTeague said.

“If by some miracle (Vladimir Putin) were to say, ‘I’m moving out, that’s it, it’s over,’ then I think oil would drop $10, perhaps $15 per barrel.”

Monday (May 9) is “Victory Day” in Russia, an occasion that marks the former Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany during the Second World War.

The potential for even higher fuel rates comes as Southern Ontario continues to break gas price records.

McTeague said that on Sunday, prices will jump to 199.9 cents per litre, with “some going to 200.9 cents a litre.”

He said shortages of fossil fuels were also pushing prices up across the board.

“This is a shortage of natural gas, it’s a shortage of diesel — and that’s the workhorse of the global economy, like it or not,” McTeague said.

He cited global supply issues, government levies including the carbon tax and the weakness of the Canadian dollar as other contributing factors.

“The fact we got to $2 a litre — or just a fraction thereunder — before May 24 is a more alarming sign than I could have imagined,” he said.

— With files from Global News’ Hannah Jackson