Summer Gas Prices Too Difficult to Predict says Analyst
Prince George, B.C. – There are too many factors at play to safely predict what this summer’s gas prices will look like in Prince George.
That from Dan McTeague, senior petroleum analyst with GasBuddy.com.
“Your prices are in the 1.17/1.18 range right now, in some places a little cheaper than that, but generally speaking during the summer we have a combination of problems that can emerge almost without notice.”
He says a good example of that was the refinery outage in Edmonton earlier this month causing gas shortages in Alberta and parts of B.C.
McTeague says another potential wildcard are refinery shutdowns in the United States.
“If there are shortages or refineries in the Midwest that run into difficulty or have some kind of interruption, especially during summer peak driving periods with U.S. demand being where it is for gasoline, we could end of paying a lot more.”
In the short-term however, he says we may get a break.
“I think right now 1.17 to 1.23 is about the high water mark for the next couple of weeks. Once things get resolved you could see things trend down towards the 1.10 mark. But making predictions in the long term are usually predictably wrong.”
Comments
cool the last few days, that irrational carbon tax must be working.
Let me toss out a guess…
Gas will rise, more so just before any long weekend..
The gas companies will reach into their bag of excuses for a reason why the increase, even though we all know there are millions of litres of cheap oil sitting in tankers waiting till the price increase before it is refined..
Guess I am an gas price analyst now ;)
Speculators have a large effect in moving prices up an down.
Well then down thumbs prove me wrong, with facts to back up your case. I am not defending oil companies as a shill on this site believes. There is a very large oil speculative market, just Google it. Not saying oil companies do not set prices, they are not the only player.
Can anyone tell me why we have such a fixation with gasoline prices?
In our monthly (or annual cost broken down to monthly costs) expenses we spend considerably more on
1. rent/mortgage/property taxes
2. food – groceries/fast food
and more or similar on such items as
3. vehicles
4. insurance
5. communications – telephone/internet/tv
And finally some of those more discretionary spending items as
6. recreation – hobbies, sports, entertainment, etc.
7. clothes
8. interest on mortgages and other loans.
So why is gasoline such a hot discussion item. Is it just because there is generally little difference in the prices and they are so prominently displayed for all to see without leaving one’s car or through web pages which track the price of gasoline?
I think we should track the price of milk, corn on the cob, and prepared sushi from the various grocery outlets.
I think it is because of the ease at which prices seemingly can be fixed based on what people will or have to pay, case in point, Costco came to town and miraculously gas dropped at ALL the stations, therefore proving what people had been saying for years, that we in PG, refinery or not, have been getting hugely gouged because we live in a area where large gas guzzling vehicles are the norm, whether needed for work or not. It is one of the few commodities that the average person usually has to buy that has such a large fluctuation curve in as little as a weeks time.
One cannot compare Costco gasoline business with a Shell franchise gas service station which has a small convenience store attached. The margins are totally different.
The price of gas directly affects almost every other part of our lives! Everything we buy, or eat, is trucked to the store. It takes gas or diesel to get those products there, hence the increase in prices.
How much is the cost of gasoline per 100 km of transport compared to the wage of the driver, the people who load the goods, the warehousing costs, the cost of all other overheads for the businesses involved, the currency exchange rates between the C$ and US$ which is now hovering around 25%.
Figure that out and the impact of gas price by 10% will make minimal impact on the other costs involved.
I fully agree! We should track and publish the prices of staple foods, like milk, eggs, bananas, flour, meats, vegetables, fruits and bread.
What gets me is that people buy huge trucks (box always empty) for personal use. These things guzzle 20 liters in town driving and 12 or more on the highway. Then when the price at the pump goes up by 10 cents they start talking boycotts.
So you are saying fuel costs do not factor into freight hauling costs?
Why would gas be cheaper on Vancouver Island, Victoria, Nanaimo, Parksville, etc; 1.12, 1.13 while in Prince George we are paying 1.17.
Considering that there are lots of transportation costs to get this gas to the Island, while Prince George on the other hand has very little transportation costs, because we have the refinery in our back yard.
Whether it is gas, or other commodities, ie; groceries, houses, taxes, cars, etc; etc;, you can rest assured that we are being gouged to the maximum.
Comments for this article are closed.