Prowling the Pumps – November 18, 2008

Canadian Gasoline Prices

Average across Canada

And the average price of gasoline in Canada keeps dropping – 3.5¢ per litre to $0.845 per litre. Our hypothetical 80-litre tank was $2.80 less expensive to fill this week than last.

Gasoline prices slid in everywhere in the country except Northwest Territories where they remained steady, not bad considering they had the largest drop last week. This week the largest drop honours go to the Yukon at 8.5ȼ

Overall, the average gasoline price in Canada has dropped 53.8ȼ per litre since its all-time high of $1.383 per litre during the week of July 15. And this means that our hypothetical 80-litre tank now costs $43.04 less than it did almost four months ago – $110.64 then compared to $67.60 now.

Least Expensive Gasoline in Canada (per litre)

Of the 60 cities surveyed this week, 56 enjoyed gasoline prices less that one dollar. That’s three more than last week. However, the big shift came in the number of cities paying less than 90ȼ per litre. Last week there were 19 cities; this week there are 43. Needless to say, the five cheapest were in Ontario.

Most Expensive Gasoline in Canada (per litre)

Gander, at $0.984, is the first city in the pricey five to break the $1.00 per litre mark. Yellowknife and Whitehorse continue to jockey for most expensive city in which to buy gasoline, but, by virtue of Whitehorse dropping 8.5¢ per litre last week, Yellowknife takes top (bottom?) honours. Fort St. John is the only city in British Columbia where gas costs more than $1.00 per litre.

Last week’s question related to how much more the price of gasoline will fall. It’s still falling, but it seems to be leveling off – 3.5ȼ or so compared to 5.5ȼ to six cents a few weeks ago. Of course a lot depends on the price of oil, which is still falling.

On November 11, West Texas Intermediate crept below $60 US per barrel for the first time since March 2007. Since then, despite pirates hijacking a tanker holding two million barrels of oil, it has slipped further to less than $55 US per barrel.

With global economies continuing to decline, the demand for oil continues to decline as well. While pundits are loathe to predict how long the recession will last, some say it will be deep but brief.

Our flirtation with affordable gasoline may be brief. How brief? We’ll see what happens next week.

Pricing by Province

	Last Week	This Week	Change
BC	0.989	0.965	-0.024
AB	0.864	0.832	-0.032
SK	0.941	0.912	-0.029
MB	0.948	0.890	-0.058
ON	0.875	0.844	-0.031
QC	0.910	0.864	-0.046
NB	0.916	0.859	-0.057
PE	0.929	0.856	-0.073
NS	0.922	0.872	-0.050
NL	1.046	0.988	-0.058
YT	1.139	1.054	-0.085
NT	1.104	1.104	0.000