Hamilton’s gasoline prices reaching record high is ‘inevitable’: analyst

No relief from Hamilton's surging gasoline prices is expected before the end of summer, according to two petroleum analysts.

The president of a group pushing for lower energy prices in Canada believes it is inevitable" that petroleum breaks through its all-time high - in this city, an average of 141.6 cents per litre on a June 21, 2014.

Dan McTeague, of Canadians for Affordable Energy, is expecting a new record in the next month or two. With borders still closed and fewer flights in the air, McTeague says we're still a long way off" from peak demand.

An analyst for American petroleum price app GasBuddy differs slightly in his outlook.

Patrick De Haan predicts a plateau" following summer driving season.

Over the long weekend in Hamilton, average prices approached 140 cents per litre, with a few individual gas stations over that mark.

McTeague and De Haan both noted similar factors affecting the gasoline price: higher taxes, a low Canadian dollar, and the supply of petroleum not meeting resurgent demand."

But it is extraordinarily clear," McTeague said, that the move away from COVID has had a lot to do with driving oil prices up," with rising production levels lagging behind Canada's dropping case counts.

McTeague said petroleum prices will follow directly" Delta variant cases. If cases are low, demand and prices will be high.

As for production, De Haan said, we continue to see oil prices that have flirted with multi-year high." He said producers did agree to come back to pre-pandemic levels, but that hasn't happened yet.

Resurgence of COVID-19, due to the Delta variant surge, is not affecting consumption in the bellwether" U.S.

Americans are hitting the road," De Haan said, albeit for shorter distances, according to a GasBuddy media release July 8.

U.S. prices climbed to a seven-year high, with a national average of $3.14 per gallon," the release says.

But those American prices are a far cry from Canada.

In nearby Buffalo, petroleum reached an average of $3.11 per gallon Monday, the Canadian equivalent of 82 cents per litre, De Haan said.

In the long term, De Haan expects the price to drop 10 to 20 cents by year's end, but the return to offices could offset that typical seasonality."

Jeremy Kemeny is a Hamilton-based web editor at The Spectator. Reach him via email: jkemeny@thespec.com