Pain in the pump: Gas prices to rise in Hamilton

As health officials suggest COVID-19 is peaking," it appears gas prices will too.

That break at the pump that we've seen since mid-March may be winding down. According to the crowdsourced GasBuddy website, prices in Hamilton are up 4.7 cents from last week's average of 80.2 cents per litre.

According to Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy, as provinces and states begin slowly reopening businesses, oil and gas refineries that have slowed production to prevent flooding the market with unwanted gasoline will raise production.

Although it remains to be seen how quickly refiners will raise production to meet the locations that have or will begin to reopen in the days and weeks ahead," he said.

For Hamilton, it means it's unlikely we'll see numbers like we did on March 26, which marked the lowest average on record since 2008 at 63.9 cents per litre.

As of 1 p.m. on May 5, the average price in the city was 84.9 cents per litre, which ranks slightly higher than the provincial average of 82.8/L.

Delaney Caulfield is a Hamilton-based web editor at The Spectator. Reach her via email: dcaulfield@thespec.com