Drivers should hold off on filling their gas tanks because prices at the pumps are expected to drop at midnight, gas-price watcher Dan McTeague said.
McTeague, a former MP who runs the gas price website tomorrowsgaspricestoday.com, said he keeps a close eye on weekly inventory reports issued by the U.S. Department of Energy.
McTeague's website, tomorrowsgaspricestoday.com, predicts that average prices across the country will fall by about 6.2 cents overnight.
He said the markets have been exaggerating concerns about gas supplies all week, and drivers have had to pay the price with high costs at the pumps.
With the markets now settling down, "it would be impossible for refiners not to pass on the savings," he said.
The price of gas shot up overnight, with Wednesday morning prices averaging about $1.42 per litre in Eastern Canada, and $1.28 in the West.
On Thursday, the prices should sit at around $1.29 in the West and $1.35 in the eastern provinces.
Here is the average per-litre price in a number of Canadian cities as of Wednesday afternoon, according to GasBuddy.com, which tracks current costs:
- Montreal: $1.46
- Toronto:: $1.41
- Ottawa: $134.77
- Winnipeg: $1.27
- Calgary: $1.26
- Vancouver: $1.42
One year ago, the price in Toronto was 98 cents per litre. That means the city's seen about a 43 per cent year-over-year increase.
On Wednesday, a barrel of crude oil cost CDN$100.98.
Jeff Rubin, former chief economists at CIBC World Markets and the author of "Why Your World Is About To get A Whole Lot Smaller," said prices this week provide a glimpse into the future for Canadian motorists.
"The kind of oil prices were seeing, the kind of gas prices we're seeing at the pumps that have everybody up in arms is, unfortunately, a taste of the future," Rubin told CTV's Canada AM.
"Within a year from now, we're either looking at $2-a-litre gasoline or we're going to be in another oil-induced recession."
Faith Goodman, vice-president of the Canadian Petroleum Products Institute, said Canada's gas prices are set according to the North American market and the country is not a "market maker."
She said current flooding in the Mississippi River, especially in the Memphis, Tenn., area, caused a logistical supply shortage due to the shutdown of oil refineries, leading to higher gas prices.
Rubin said the North American oil market has little to no excess capacity, meaning if there is a natural disaster such as the Mississippi flooding, or if there is unrest in a Middle Eastern oil nation, supply suffers and prices go up.
Drivers may need to prepare for still higher prices, he said.
"(Toronto) Mayor Rob Ford said the war on the car is over. I'm saying the war on the car has barely begun and the enemy is not going to be left-leaning councillors; the enemy is going to be $2 per litre gasoline," Rubin said.
