Lower Mainland gas prices drop by almost 10c overnight

There’s some good news if you need to fill up your tank on Thursday, as gas prices dropped about a dime overnight, with some stations selling a litre of regular gas for $1.66.

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, tells 1130 NewsRadio that ongoing refinery issues along the U.S. West Coast have improved dramatically, and supplies from Asia to meet local demand have arrived.

“This is something that may last for the next few days, of course, with these refineries still not completely back online, if we don’t continue to receive additional gasoline supplies, we could eventually see prices going back up,” De Haan said Thursday.

“So, it’s a very delicate situation. Enjoy the relief for now, and let’s hope that we don’t see any new issues develop.”

One of the biggest issues was a high-level refinery fire that happened back in February in northern California, which supplies fuel to much of the West Coast of both Canada and the U.S.

“And then that refinery, as it started to get back online, suffered another fire, just about eight weeks ago or so and that sent gas prices back up. These refinery issues — we could probably be citing this for another seven to eight months or so before this refinery in California, that has now suffered two fires, is substantially back online. This is not a problem that is necessarily over, but it’s nice to see some relief for now.”

De Haan thinks this particular relief at the pump should stick around for another week or two, but it comes with a warning.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a super fluid [situation]. I don’t necessarily see any reason for prices to go back up, but all it would take is one new unexpected refining issue on the West Coast to send prices a little bit back up,” he said.

“What that would look like really is anyone’s guess. Refinery outages happen, they’re unpredictable, so it’s really a question of, do we see another refining issue in a major way that could disrupt gasoline supplies? That’s the biggest question. There are a lot of different things that can cause gas prices to fluctuate today, overnight, news in the U.S., Russia’s war in Ukraine, just many, many headlines that can drive gas prices up.”

He understands that the ups and downs are frustrating for drivers, but points to some new numbers that show things are improving, albeit slowly.

“The B.C. average is still about 23 cents a litre lower than last year when prices were $1.83. In fact, in Vancouver, average prices a year ago were $1.91, and this morning, many stations are slipping below the $1.70 a litre mark,” he explained.

“And the good news is B.C. is seeing the largest week-over-week decline of any province by over two cents a litre. Right now, Abbotsford is seeing a weekly decline of 10 cents a litre — that’s one of the biggest weekly decreases in Canada right now.”