Oil refinery maintenance, pipeline outages, and a weaker Canadian dollar are being blamed for the sudden increase in gas prices in B.C. (Jordan Davidson/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Jordan Davidson

sticker shock

Refinery maintenance, outages, and weak Canadian dollar blamed for higher gas prices

Sep 10, 2025 | 11:51 AM

NANAIMO — Drivers filling their vehicles with gas were in for a bit of sticker shock Wednesday morning, with the price of gas jumping seemingly overnight.

The average price for fuel in Nanaimo as of the morning of Wednesday, Sept. 10, was around 176.9 cents per litre, an increase of around 20 cents since the weekend.

GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan said unexpected outages affecting gasoline-carrying pipelines and oil refinery maintenance in the northwest United States are contributing to the sudden increase, along with a weaker Canadian dollar.

“(They) hit the supply of gasoline for these three communities, that is B.C., Oregon and Washington. Most of the refinery capacity in the West Coast is in California, but the problem is California uses a different blend of gasoline compared to B.C, Oregon, and Washington.”

De Haan said gas prices in Vancouver are sitting around 187.4 on Wednesday morning, an increase of around 10 cents per litre, and up 23 cents per litre in the last week.

On the Lake

Training, fundraising take precedence in winter months for Nanaimo Rowing Club

23h ago

clean-up

Locals plan to remove shoreline hazard in Qualicum Beach

Dec 13, 2025

Wings Clipped

Seguin-Lescarbeau and Rimmer lead Clippers to Teddy Bear Toss win

Dec 13, 2025

He said stations make the switch from summer gas to cheaper winter gasoline next Tuesday, which should result in a drop in prices.

“That’s part of the squeeze here is that refineries really don’t want to extend supply. There’s only five more days that this summer blend of gasoline is mandated, and that’s behind part of the squeeze with supply right now.”

De Haan said he doesn’t anticipate higher prices to be the trend in the long term, with gasoline supplies from other parts of the world expected to arrive in Canada in the weeks ahead, alleviating some of the pressure.

“I don’t expect it to get a whole lot worse. It likely will start to get better, though maybe not immediately, but I would say in the next week or two we should start seeing prices receding, and they should, eventually, get back into the 160’s and maybe even the 150’s.”

— with files from Jon de Roo, 97.3 The Eagle

Follow us on Facebook. Join Everything Nanaimo on Facebook and stay connected with everything happening on central Vancouver Island.

info@nanaimonewsnow.com

Follow us on: Twitter (X) | Bluesky | Facebook