Calgary gas prices on the rise with no relief in sight

If you recently filled up your vehicle, your wallet may have taken a larger hit than usual.

In Calgary, regular unleaded gasoline sits at 136.9 per litre as of Thursday, and that number is expected to climb due to refineries entering maintenance season and a major “unplanned” shutdown of the sixth largest refinery in Indiana, which is also impacting Chicago.

“It's a very large consumer of Western Canadian Select, about 280,000 barrels a day,” said Roger McKnight, chief petroleum analyst with En-Pro International.

“So that has gone down and that was unscheduled as they, unplanned, which is a great way of saying it's broken.”

The cheapest gas in the Calgary area is at the Tsuu’tina Costco, advertising for 124.9 per litre.

“Prices go up about mid-February and the peak about mid-April because of the so-called maintenance. But this year is going to be a lot deeper and a lot longer,” said McKnight.

“It's going to affect prices severely, you're going to see prices move very rapidly in the prairies.”

Truck driver Garry Mallhi says he has felt the impact at the pumps.

“Pay is the same, but as gas prices and other things are going up, in this time, it’s really hard to keep up,” he said.

“Driving these big trucks and when you're hauling anything, is affecting every single second to us.”

Mallhi says his diesel truck is costing even more.

“When I did pump it, that day was $1.49 I think, so now today $1.62, $1.63,” said Mallhi.

“Depends on the tanks, around $1,000 dollars.”

McKnight expects this price escalation will last at least six weeks, conservatively predicting another increase of five to eight cents per litre.