Regina gas stations making money as prices jump again

Drivers in Regina may have noticed the price at the pump jump by roughly eight cents per litre over the last few days.

Many stations showed 105.9 cents per litre earlier on in the week, but are now showing 113.9 cents per litre despite the price of oil remaining low.

“It perplexes me as to why we can’t get a straight answer, a simple straight answer, on why our gas prices keep going up,” said one driver.

“No one’s been able to show me a clear link as to why that happens.”

He wondered why even the price of diesel isn’t going down considering it’s a byproduct of gas, calling it strange.

GasBuddy.com’s Jason Toews thinks he may know the reason why you’re paying more to fuel up.

“When one station or one brand is the market leader, they’ll raise up their prices and everyone else copies them. What that means is all the stations are making more money, at least in the short term,” he explained.

“Essentially they’re just padding their profit margins when they do this.”

Toews outlined how companies realize there’s an increased demand for gas during the busy summer travel months. However, he said drivers can also fight back against that.

“You can vote with your pocket book and you can take your business elsewhere because not all the gas stations raise their prices when everyone does,” he said.

It could be worse. Toews said this time last year drivers were paying 15 cents a litre more.

The current lowest station in Regina shows 99.9 cents per litre.

KMartel@rawlco.com
Follow on Twitter: @KevinMartel