Prowling the Pumps – December 16, 2008

Canadian Gasoline Prices

Average across Canada

The average price of gasoline in Canada decreased for the 14th consecutive week. The drop wasn’t much, 0.6¢ per litre, but it was still a drop. It would have been more, but prices actually increased in some of the larger cities like Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Hamilton and London (the national average is population-weighted).

Provincially and territorially, decreases occurred everywhere except Quebec, which remained the same as last week. The biggest drop, 12.3¢ per litre, occurred in the Northwest Territories. The other big declines were in New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador.

Least Expensive Gasoline in Canada (per litre)

For the first time since we began prowling the pumps, the price of gasoline in each of the 60 cities in the survey was below $1.00. In fact, in only one city does gas cost more than 90¢. And in six cities, it costs less than 70¢.

Big changes in the low-price five (actually six this week because of a tie for fifth place). Ontario cities have been largely replaced by Alberta cities. This is due to continued decreases out west combined with the aforementioned price increases in southern Ontario.

Most Expensive Gasoline in Canada (per litre)

Wishful thinking last week was that we’d all be paying less than a buck a litre before Christmas, and that came true this week. Labrador City, the most expensive of the pricey five, came in at $0.905. And this week marks the first time that five different provinces are represented in the pricey five. Timmins has the dubious distinction of being the first Ontario city to join that elite club.

Last week the Prowler wondered if we’d see a run up in oil prices prior to the OPEC meeting December 17. Well, it seems the opposite has happened – a price decline after the cartel announced a 2.2 million barrel per day production cut. Oil prices are now hovering just above the $40 US per barrel mark. It seems the market was expecting some large non-OPEC producers to announce production cuts and when that didn’t happen, it reacted in a seriously negative way. OPEC was hoping to stabilize oil prices between $70 and $80 per barrel.

And $40 per barrel might be one of those so-called “psychological barriers” above which the price bounces around a bit, “testing” the market until it finally breaks through, then plunges another five bucks per barrel over night. That seemed to happen on the way up; no reason why it won’t happen on the way down.

So, will the other producers fall in line? Will oil prices start heading back up?

We’ll see what happens next week.

Pricing by Province

	Last Week	This Week	Change
BC	0.841	0.804	-0.037
AB	0.738	0.697	-0.041
SK	0.801	0.782	-0.019
MB	0.791	0.771	-0.020
ON	0.766	0.757	-0.009
QC	0.798	0.798	0.000
NB	0.802	0.724	-0.078
PE	0.752	0.719	-0.033
NS	0.799	0.745	-0.054
NL	0.929	0.851	-0.078
YT	0.909	0.899	-0.020
NT	1.022	0.899	-0.123