Profits driving up gas prices at Saskatoon stations

Saskatoon drivers will have a lighter wallet following the next time they fill up their vehicle with gas.

Gas prices shot up again Thursday with some stations showing a 10 cent mark up from Tuesday’s increase.

As of Friday, Gasbuddy.com said the average price for a litre of gasoline in Saskatoon was sitting at 82.4 cents. The highest price was 86.9, while the lowest was Costco at 69.9 cents per litre.

“So one of the things that’s going on right now is that they raised up prices in two jumps by 10 cents per litre each, up by 20 cents per litre,” explained Jason Toews, co-founder of Gasbuddy.com. “Essentially, the wholesale price has gone up and they’re making more margins right now.”

Toews told News Talk Radio the wholesale price recently increased 12 cents but some stations are hiking prices even higher that to make more money. Toews added he expects prices to drop about four or five cents per litre within the next few days.

“This time of year we usually see gas prices going up, you know, as we get closer to spring and summer driving season there’s more demand for gasoline,” said Toews.

If 84.9 cents per litre seems high to some people right now, Toews said just wait until April or May. He expects prices to jump to 110 cents per litre or 120 cents per litre at that time.

Toews did provide an explanation as to why prices will shoot that high even if the price of crude oil remains relatively low.

“What we find is in the summer months the price of gasoline is more tied to the supply and demand of refined gasoline rather than crude oil because the refineries operate near their capacity during the summer months and they can’t produce more gasoline so they have to raise their prices so they can keep supplies ample.”

-With files from Brant Hilton