British Columbia

Gasoline prices set to fall in Victoria, analyst says

Dan McTeague of GasBuddy says gasoline retailers in Victoria are making extraordinary profits over their wholesale cost right now, but he predicts the price at the pump to drop dramatically in the next few weeks.

Victoria should see 15 cent drop in coming weeks, according to GasBuddy.com

A hand presses a button at a gas pump.
Dan McTeague of GasBuddy.com says wholesale prices for gasoline have been declining since October but the price at the pump in Victoria has not. (Michelle Siu/The Canadian Press)

 Victoria residents should expect a dramatic drop in the price of gasoline in the coming weeks, acccording to one analyst.

Dan McTeague, senior petroleum analyst for the website GasBuddy.com said the current per-litre price of $1.15 to $1.19.9 in Victoria is out of step with the wholesale price of gasoline.

In the next three to four weeks, he said, gas prices should decline by about 15 cents or more. 

"Right now, if I'm a gas station owner in Victoria, it's costing me about 92 cents-a-litre to buy my gasoline,"  McTeague told All Points West host Robyn Burns ... $1.17.9 means I'm making fantastic money."

"That's a retail margin of virtually 25 cents a litre. Almost unheard of," he said. 

 "That to me is reflecting of wholesale prices and a reality for gasoline that existed almost a month ago."

Since then, McTeague said, gas station owners have gone through their inventories of higher-cost gasoline related to pipeline disruptions and bad weather for shipping. 

"So, I would expect that gas station owners and operators and those who manage them on the part of the major oil companies will begin to reflect the reality," he said.

"It's costing them 92 cents a litre. I'll give them 10 cents as a retail margin, it should be down to a $1.02.9, not $1.17.9."

With files from CBC Radio One's All Points West