METRO VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — Drivers planning to do a lot of driving this weekend should probably fill up their tanks tonight.
Tonight, drivers in Lower Mainland will likely be able to find prices of 131.9 or lower Friday evening, but those prices are expected to jump 6 cents by Saturday, and another 11 cents by Sunday. Those prices aren’t likely to drop until again until at least Wednesday of next week.
Dan McTeague with Gas Buddy says he expects the massive jump after the Olympic pipeline shut down, which supplies all of the gasoline in Washington State and Oregan. Now we’re paying for that shortage with temporary high gas prices, he says.
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“That pipeline was down for almost two days unexpectedly. The 400-mile pipeline carries almost all of the fuel processed in the Washington State and Puget Sound Refinery,” he says. “For that reason, we saw a massive spike — there was actually a shortage of gasoline.”
The pipeline is back up and running, but “the damage is done,” he says.
“This never happens. We do see price spikes, and we know that we’ve paid record prices in North America because of refinery issues, but this particular increase came out of thin air. No on expected it to happen,” he says. “The Olympic pipeline is really the aeortic artery, if you will, of gasoline and fuel supplies throughout all of the Pacific Northwest.”
McTeague says if you need to fill up, you shouldn’t wait until midnight or tomorrow night. If you do, that will cost you.
Follow NEWS 1130’s Gas Tracker on Twitter for the latest gas prices around the Lower Mainland.
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