Supply problems blamed for Metro Vancouver gas stations running dry

You’re not alone if you’ve been driving around Metro Vancouver lately trying to find a gas station that actually has fuel.

Many stations in Vancouver, North Vancouver, Coquitlam, Maple Ridge, Surrey, Langley, and even in the Interior have been blocked off by yellow caution tape or a sign letting people know there’s nothing available.

Paul Pasco, principal consultant with Kalibrate, says the BP Cherry Point refinery in Washington state’s Whatcom County went offline last week for scheduled maintenance.

Some gas stations across Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, like this one pictured in Langley City, have had to close temporarily due to a supply issue in recent days. (Dean Recksiedler, CityNews)

And while supply and prices were down, demand was up for the B.C. Day long weekend.

“With that loss of capacity, the recent price drop, and the long weekend, the supply chain could not keep up. We saw the perfect storm of prices falling into a long weekend with the inability to generate new supply immediately coming out of Washington [state] and potentially the BP refinery may have had some additional length to their shutdown compared to previous [closures]. They’re just in the midst of a three-year re-tooling to increase their biofuel capacity,” Pasco told CityNews.

He thinks things should be back to normal by this weekend — if not, in a week’s time.

“The refinery is already back up and running and now it’s just a matter of everyone running out of fuel working its way out of the system,” Pasco explained.

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The analyst thinks gas prices will continue dropping during the month of August and predicts the Metro Vancouver region will hit about $1.80 for a litre of regular as kids head back to school next month.

“I think there could be a little more of a drop to come. What we’re seeing … is the economy is pulling back, it’s starting to get ready for a recession, so we’re seeing some falling prices. There is still a tightness on the crude oil supply, but we are seeing refining is keeping up and prices should be able to pullback a little bit. I don’t expect any major jumps. I don’t think we’re going to go back to where we were a couple of years ago, but maybe another five cents or so a litre, we can continue to see it pull back.”

Lower Mainland drivers saw record gas prices not that long ago, when a litre of regular hit as high as $2.36. Pasco doesn’t think we’ll hit that again, at least not anytime soon.