Advertisement

Calgary gas prices will jump before going down again, analyst says

Calgary gas prices will jump before going down again, analyst says

Calgary drivers may find prices inching upward this week, but a gasoline analyst says he expects prices will fall again before long.

Many stations have been charging about 86 cents per litre for the past few weeks. Dan McTeague with GasBuddy, an online price tracker, is forecasting retail prices will jump to $1.02 per litre — something you may have already seen.

"Your prices have been below cost now for — except for a few days — for pretty much the past month," he said.

There's a glut of gasoline on the North American market, he said, and stations have been selling their gas below the 95 cents per litre they pay for it in an attempt to keep up with box stores like Costco.

The low prices on regular fuel draw customers in, who in turn spend money on other products, like groceries at Costco or snacks at the shops attached to many fuel stations.

"If you're buying your gasoline for 95 cents a litre but selling for 86, chances are you're going to get a call from your bank asking you whether or not you want to remain solvent," McTeague said. "Because it's not possible to continue doing that, unless of course you have another way in which to offset those massive losses."

He expects gas stations that bump up prices will end up dropping them again in the next few days because the market is so competitive.