Gas prices set to soar in summer months
With summer fast approaching it seems the temperature isn’t the only thing set to climb, with gas prices expected to see a boost in the coming week.
As of April 3 consumers are being told to expect a price increase, according to experts.
Dan McTeague, Senior Petroleum Analyst with GasBuddy.com, told CBC Toronto that the increase could be as much as four cents, forcing prices into the mid $1.30 range. "The increase that we will see beginning after April 3 or 4, right up until about the 11th of April, is known as the switch over from winter blends of gasoline to summer blend," he said, in an interview with the news reporter.
The increase is apparently the result of a seasonal variation in gasoline in the country. Winter blends are created to ignite with greater ease, to help engines start up in the colder temperatures. Once summer arrives, a new blend of additives are created to make sure the gas does not ignite in higher temperatures. What this means for the consumer is that you could be shelling out for gas that is hitting the $1.40 range.
"Those additives are quite expensive and they usually mean a four cents across-the-board increase for most Canadian drivers, starting at about the first few days of April all the way to the middle of September, at which point we then revert back to less expensive to make winter gasoline," McTeague continued.
"It means, of course, that prices in Toronto will pass, likely, marks that we haven't seen at the pumps going back to about August of 2014."
In fact, gas prices are an estimated 23 cents per litre higher than this time last year. And this past weekend was a decent reflection of this increase. On Thursday, the price at the pumps in the GTA was an average of 119 cents a litre- this price was expected to hit 124 cents a litre on Friday and then climb even further to 133 cents per litre on Saturday.
However, McTeague offers some useful advice for locals looking to save on their trips to the gas station: “A gasoline station offering fuel in the morning or up to noon for 130.9, might drop that as low as $1.21 or 122.9 after 7:o'clock in evening. So I think consumers are always better to buy late evening, more so on the weekends."