By Dan Marshall

California refinery issue blamed for spike in Nanaimo gas prices

Jan 4, 2017 | 9:47 AM

NANAIMO — A rude awakening for drivers around the mid-island Wednesday morning.
 
The price of fuel shot up 14-cents overnight to 128.9/litre at many local gas stations.

Dan McTeague with GasBuddy.com says the increase has been on the horizon for almost a week.

“Gasoline stations were really holding off until the bitter end. They received notices last week of an increase of seven or eight cents a litre. But since they probably had gasoline left over from the week before, they held on until this morning when many of them had to call their suppliers and replenish depleted stocks. We saw Victoria go up a few days ago so it was only a matter of time before Nanaimo caught up,” said McTeague.

Overall McTeague expects fuel prices to be higher in 2017 than in 2015 or 2016, but in the short-term things should settle back down.

“I guess that the price will start to come down but it’s going to take about two weeks,” said McTeague. “I would expect the 14-cent jump will probably come back down about five to eight cents a litre somewhere around the middle of January.”

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Most of the gasoline on Vancouver Island comes from refineries in Washington State, but McTeague says this current rise in prices stems from an issue farther south, in California.

“We don’t produce enough gasoline, nor do we get enough gasoline coming through the Trans Mountain pipeline to supply our own needs on Vancouver Island. So when there’s an issue in the United States, and there was last week with one of the largest refineries in California shutting down unexpectedly, that causes a rally in gasoline prices,” said McTeague.

Gas prices started going up at some Nanaimo stations late Tuesday afternoon. As of Wednesday morning there were still a few bargains left with some pumps posting prices of 114.9/litre.

The average price in Victoria is listed at 126.9 with Vancouver coming in at 135.9.