People around town may be scrambling to fill their tanks as gas prices soared in Kenora this morning by as much as 13 cents at some stations.
Three stations around town upped their price today (October 6, 2021) to $1.549 from $1.419 that Kenora has been at since early summer.
This significant increase is due to the price of Crude Oil which is what is used to make gasoline has hit a seven-year high of $78.41 a barrel.
Patrick DeHaan a Petroleum Analysis for GasBuddy says the reasoning behind the spike in Crude Oil is an energy crunch seen globally.
“China is having issues with enough electrical power production and part of the reason is they’re looking at very low coal inventories for power plants. Part of the reason why that's supporting the price of Crude Oil is the fact some of the natural gas electrical production in China can actually be switched over to Crude Oil thus boosting the demand to Crude Oil,” said DeHaan.
Another big reason for the sudden jump in gas prices is the recovery oil has made from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Is pushing global oil consumption but production of Crude Oil is lagging behind and like I said oil prices are at a 7-year high and that’s boosting the price of gasoline,” added DeHaan.
The COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected the oil market as consumption was down due to motorists not driving as they were forced to stay in their homes.
DeHaan noted at one point in the pandemic oil prices were briefly in the negative, which he said has never happened before.
If motorists think this will go away after the long weekend that’s not the case as early projections show this energy crunch isn’t going away anytime soon.
“Unfortunately I think this is bad news for motorists that these high gas prices will likely stick around, and the length is unknown but I would have to say for now we could see elevated gas prices for next the month or two at least if not longer,” concluded DeHaan
Currently, the cheapest price for gas in Kenora can be found at two stations with a price of $1.419.
The provincial average for regular unleaded gasoline in Northern Ontario as of October 4, 2021, is $1.438 with the provincial average being $1.396.