If you can hold off on fuelling up in Cochrane you may be able to save some dollars in your pocket.

Dan McTeague, Senior Petroleum Analyst with Gas Buddy, says gas prices rose roughly 7.3c/L last week and while they probably won't drop significantly, they should go down by a few cents.

"I think the competitive nature of the retailing of gasoline in Southern Alberta is pretty well known and if you don't like a 111.9, wait a few days it may drop to 108 or 107.9 by Thursday."

Trying to predict whether or not these higher prices are the new 'norm' is tough to say. McTeague says you need to be looking consistently and continuously south of the border to the US refinery production team as well as keeping an eye on the Canadian Dollar.

"It's strength is a good thing it tends to give us more purchasing power and it's weakness tends to represent higher prices for Canadians. If the Canadian dollar was trading on par today with the US greenback you would probably be looking at savings as much as 15c/L."

Demand for oil will also determine where prices will settle at. For three years in a row demand for oil has been on track for breaking the previous year record which means demand goes up, supply goes down, regardless where the Canadian dollar comes in at.

If the health of the US refineries continues to be at maximum capacity without demand spikes, McTeague says prices could remain where they are. If not, the price at the pump could move into the 120 range or higher, with this year's new taxes only compounding to the misery.

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