The price of oil rose on Thursday morning, but experts say the expectation that Metro Vancouver gas prices would drop may have been only one day off the mark.
Some stations in Vancouver are still advertising $2.18 per litre of regular, but Roger McKnight, chief petroleum analyst at EnPro, says prices could drop significantly Friday.
Effective after midnight, McKinght tells 1130 NewsRadio that Vancouver-area gas prices will drop by 16 cents per litre and diesel prices will drop by 25 cents per litre.
“How long these will hold is a question for another day,” said McKnight.
Gas prices have been increasing around the globe since the onset of the U.S. and Israel’s attacks on Iran and disruptions to traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, curtailing the flow of millions of barrels of crude each day.
Only a trickle of ships has transited since the war began after several were attacked, and Iran threatened to hit any that it deemed connected to the U.S. or Israel. Ships appeared to continue to avoid the strait even after the ceasefire.
Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Saeed Khatibzadeh, told the BBC that his country will allow ships to pass through the strait in accordance with “international norms and international law” once the United States ends its “aggression” in the Middle East and Israel stops attacking Lebanon.
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The strait’s de facto closure has caused oil prices to skyrocket — affecting the cost of gasoline, food and other basics far beyond the Middle East. Oil prices fell Wednesday on news of the ceasefire but climbed again as uncertainty over the deal grew.
Upon hearing that prices would drop Friday, one man stopped pumping gas at a station Thursday morning.
“I shouldn’t put anything now, I should wait ’til later,” he told CityNews.
“These prices are crazy now, man. They shouldn’t be happening to us.”
Another said he’d only “get enough to go to work,” and come back the next day.
One truck driver shared that he’s struggling to afford gas amid fluctuating prices.
“Before the war, it was $180 to fill the truck; now it’s $260, $270, so you can’t afford it anymore,” he said.
“It’s crazy.”