Small increases in gas prices expected due to Harvey

CALGARY – Gasoline prices are set to rise in Canada as tropical storm Harvey churns through the oil refinery district of Texas but the cost to consumers will likely be restricted to a few pennies per litre.

GasBuddy senior petroleum analyst Dan McTeague says it now seems unlikely that Canadian gasoline prices will jump by 12 cents per litre as they did in 2008 after Ike was the last hurricane to roar ashore in Texas.

U.S. gasoline future prices spiked Monday morning as flooding temporarily shut down Houston area refineries but Canadian prices shown on the GasBuddy.com website were little changed. In Alberta the average price, according to the website Monday, was 97.8 and Lethbridge prices were around that mark.

McTeague says it appears most gas traders are taking a wait-and-see approach before bidding prices higher. He predicts that Canadian gasoline could rise by an average of two to four cents per litre by Thursday or Friday.