Problems at the Lower Mainland’s only major refinery are set to drive gas prices higher this weekend, according to one industry analyst.
“You may want to fill up today, simply because this may be the first of many days in which we are going to see a rise in prices,” Dan McTeague told Global News on Friday.
Parkland Corp. said Wednesday it had temporarily shut down its Burnaby refinery on Jan. 21 after running into an unspecified issue while trying to restart the facility after a recent bout of cold weather.
That incident produced a foul odour smelled across the region, and the company issued another warning about more potential impacts this week due to further work at the site.
The company estimated refining activities at the facility would be suspended for up to four weeks.
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McTeague forecast that the shutdown would lead to a six cent increase in the price of gasoline to $1.729 by Saturday, and higher next week.
“I think it’s pretty clear that a significant part of the refining process has been altered or damaged,” he said. “We could see a scenario where we get a lot closer to $1.77, $1.78 next week.”
McTeague said the higher prices will likely be driven by imports via barge or of refined product through the Trans Mountain pipeline.
“There’s only so much available supply you can get from available prices in order to attract those spare barrels of gasoline to get into your region,” he said.
He added that prices could rise further in the weeks ahead, if other major refineries schedule maintenance or begin to retool operations to switch to a summer fuel blend.
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