Metro Vancouver gas prices close to $2 per litre

The price of gasoline in Metro Vancouver is getting closer to $2 per litre, and one analyst expects it will soon surpass that mark.

A litre of regular was selling for $1.929 at many stations in the region Wednesday morning, up an average of six cents from Tuesday night.

The spike is, in large part, due to a fire at the PBF Energy Martinez refinery near San Francisco, California, according to many industry analysts.

“That has affected gasoline prices along the entire western coast, including Vancouver and down into Washington state, Oregon and California — all seeing a slight increase,” said Patrick De Haan, senior petroleum analyst at GasBuddy.com.

He adds the upward trend will likely continue.

“We will be soon beginning the transition to more expensive summer blend gasoline, so this is something motorists should expect will continue, on and off, over the next couple of months,” he told 1130 NewsRadio.

“I believe this refinery may have pushed its maintenance up now because of the outage — they may be starting earlier — so this is something that may stick with us for a couple of weeks. And it could lead right into the maintenance season, which will be starting in earnest in about two-to-three-weeks,” he added.

“We probably won’t see much relief from this and then we will roll right into the seasonal upward trends that we usually see. Gas prices could rise anywhere from 15 to 35 cents per litre between now and April or May,” he said.

“That’s when prices usually peak and, yes, that means we may again see that two dollar per litre threshold surpassed in the months ahead.”