It was a shock to local drivers yesterday (March 23rd) as gas prices went to levels many thought they’d never see.

Many stations in Airdrie hiked prices to around 120 to 122 cents a litre, the highest they’ve been in 2018 so far.

Fuel prices took a wicked jump on Friday to 122.9 c/litre

Senior Petroleum Analyst Dan McTeague explains the reason for the sharp spike.

“It’s costing most gas stations about 1 dollar eleven to buy their fuel today. They can’t sell it for a dollar two or a dollar nine or even a dollar 15. You can't run a gas station unless you have about five or six cents as a retail margin to pay for your overhead. The other (cents) is the restoration of what’s called a retail margin.”

While it may be a shock to many in Airdrie, prices like this were predicted by McTeague and his department.

“It’s a reflection of what we anticipated would be the case, certainly here at the beginning of January when we predicted prices in Alberta would be far more experience in 2018 versus 2017 and that price is pretty much everywhere. It will be the highest they’ve been since 2014 and we’re definitely on track for that.”

Since December of last year, fuel prices have been slowly increasing nearly 20 cents a litre as a result of the provincial carbon tax, issues with refineries and instability with the Canadian dollar.

Although prices are expected to decrease a few cents by tomorrow, more increases are on the way.

“Likely, we are going to see about a four cent increase right across the board as the country shifts from winter blends of gasoline to the mandated summer blend gasoline so that should bring with it much higher prices.”

The average price for fuel in Alberta is around 116 cents a litre, with Manitoba paying the lowest average at 106, and B.C. at the top of the list at a 141 cent average

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