Gas to $1.40/litre

Friday, 25 April 2014 18:44

The return of higher temperatures has also brought a return of higher fuel prices across the board in Oxford County.

WOODSTOCK -- Another day of gas prices hovering around the $1.40/litre mark has drivers wondering what kind of a season it will be going forward at the pumps.

Gas price watcher and former M.P. Dan McTeague, who now heads up the web site www.tomorrowsgaspricetoday.com says Woodstock and Ingersoll in addition to Toronto are all riding the same wave of what's been happening to wholesale prices.

"They all have the same taxes except for the HST, which goes up and down based on the price. But the fact is that all three of those communities are seeing prices are of $139.9 right now, some as high in Woodstock as $1.41 per litre as we saw Thursday, the day before."

McTeague says there might be some relief later this spring, when he expects prices to moderate before collapsing by the beginning of June. He says consumers won't continue to pay the premium price for too long and oil producers will have to adjust lower to move their product.

"You're going to see prices start to moderate, start to fall -- not much, but what's ultimately going to happen is that there's so much oil and gasoline in the system, refiners are going to have to begin dumping this very expensive product as people are simply going to be walking away."

While we've already seen an adjustment in the price of propane after 18 straight weeks of increases over the winter season, McTeague says higher fuel prices overall will lead to higher costs for what you're putting on your barbecue later this summer. He says higher gas prices will eventually spread to higher charges on other commodities, like food.

McTeague, says while you're worried about what you're putting in your car, you should also watch the price of what's going into your grill.

"The price of what you're putting on your barbecue is likely to double as well. Food, particularly meats and fresh vegetables could rise, but more importantly do not simply expect that those prices are going to go down."

McTeague says to replace the inventory of propane consumed last year will require a lot more in capital for producers to continue to frack for natural gas in the U.S.

He says if producers don't meet their targets, we'll go into next winter with even higher prices than we had this year for propane.