Will gas prices continue to drop?

The last couple of weeks have been exciting for anyone watching the gas prices. After hitting a high of 191.9 cents per litre, we're seeing several Strathmore locations sitting at 179.9 cents per litre. This steady drop has made things a little bit more affordable, and Gas Buddy's Head of Petroleum Analysis Patrick De Haan says we can expect things to get even better.

"I think for the next couple of weeks we will continue to trend lower, it would not surprise me to see prices drop another five, ten, maybe even 15 cents a litre over the next 2 to 3 weeks," he said.

While this is welcome news for everybody, De Haan warns that gas is a volatile market, and can change rapidly.

"There could be some caveats in that we are in the midst of hurricane season, and any unexpected news or economic news or hurricanes could turn things around. But for now, in the short term, I do see more price relief coming."

The lower prices have certainly been great, but it's still quite expensive if you compare it to the 138.9 we had in January. And if you wanted to go even further, we were as low as 102.8 in January 2021. If De Haan is correct and we go down 15 cents a litre, that would put us right around 164.9 cents per litre. He says we shouldn't expect to go much lower than that in the near future.

"Probably not now, and it probably isn't a possibility until the Russia-Ukraine situation is behind us. And that's because Russia is such a large oil producer that until that oil from Russia starts flowing globally again, prices will remain higher."

Even though the Russian invasion of Ukraine is still ongoing, we're seeing a drop in prices anyways. De Haan explains that there are many factors at play that help lower the prices outside of the Ukrainian war, which is contributing to the drop we're currently seeing

"We've been seeing an improvement in supply. Gasoline supplies have risen 4 of the last 5 weeks amidst weaker demands because of high prices. On the demand side, there are concerns about an economic slowdown which would likely curtail oil consumption as well. So that's caused oil prices to plummet. In addition, we've seen additional oil production coming back online from Libya. That drove prices down. Libya has been dealing with civil unrest so that oil has been off the market but Libya signalled that it will be returning oil production back to what it was."

So long as we don't get hit with anything catastrophic like a debilitating hurricane, it looks like we can expect our wallets to be a bit fatter as we see a return to more affordable gas.

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