Senior Petroleum Analyst with GasBuddy, Dan McTeague, said it's a combination of things pushing prices higher, "Part of this is to do with the US market, part of it's to do with oil, of course, being more expensive than it was this time last year. And part of it is to do with the weakness of the Canadian dollar."
About six weeks ago, a US dollar cost $1.22 CAN. Now one US dollar is costing Canadians $1.31.
McTeague said it's costing retailers around 102¢ to buy their fuel and their passing that higher price to consumers. Rosetown pumps are currently charging 114.9¢.
"I don't think that this is the end of the line." McTeague said it's likely consumers will see another increase in the coming weeks, "The reason is on April 1st to the 15th, we transition over to summer blends of gasoline. It does cause refineries more to produce that kind of fuel."
McTeague explained that summer blends have more compounds to help resist higher temperatures and prevent evaporation. "So that's likely to increase the prices 3¢ or 4¢ a litre."
Saskatchewan should still consider themselves lucky. B.C. drivers are currently paying around 154.9¢ at the pumps.
GasBuddy started up in Saskatchewan and now tracks gas prices for Canada, the United States and Australia.
Tue, Apr 23, 7:00 PM
