What caused this huge jump in gas prices?

Gas prices were sitting pretty comfortably at 136.9 cents per litre, until we got blasted by a 20 cent jump in just two days! Now, we're at 156.9, and this unexpected jump may be causing headaches during a time where affording basic goods is already challenging enough.

Normally a change in gas prices isn't this drastic and sudden, regardless of whether it's going up or down. Gas Buddy's Head of Petroleum Analysis Patrick De Haan explained this is because of unexpected emergencies in the USA.

"We've seen several refinery fires in areas of the US Midwest which have impacted the amount of gasoline being produced. As a result, we've seen prices jumping not only in the US, but north of the border as well, because of how tight and how dramatic these outages have been," he said.

Even though our Canadian refineries have avoided these incidents, De Haan explained the USA supplies Canada with gas as well, so shortages there have a direct impact on prices.

On top of the fires, De Haan added that this time of year is normally already a bit tighter on supply, which has only made the situation worse.

"Some refineries enter maintenance in the fall, and that's because now the summer driving season is over. Refineries have time when demand is lower to carry out maintenance work. So that is exacerbating the situation, the fact that some refineries are starting maintenance at the same time these fires are occurring has really crimped the market and caused prices to go up."

These refinery fires couldn't have been predicted, which makes the 20 cent rise even more surprising. As for what we can expect in the future, De Haan said it's difficult to predict as accidents are unpredictable, but if all goes well we could hopefully see prices go down in the near future.

"I do expect some relief. The biggest question is how long will it take refineries that have been affected to get back online? That is something that could take a week or two before we start to see relief. I'm a little worried that we could go up a little bit more before we start to head back down, but whether or not that happens is really contingent on supply and the refineries out there. If there are any further refinery issues, we certainly could see a little bit more pain."

For now, it looks like we'll just have to grin and bear it, as this price jump is unfortunately out of our control. With luck and speedy recoveries, hopefully we'll get back to the steady downward trend we've been on for the last couple of months.

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