‘This is going to hurt’: analyst predicts price hikes, gas shortages if Alberta chokes oil flow
Posted April 16, 2018 5:02 pm.
Last Updated April 16, 2018 7:13 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – If Alberta makes good on its threats to choke the flow of oil and gas to British Columbia, one petroleum analyst predicts the price at the pump could jump to two dollars per litre for regular.
And that’s just for starters.
“This is just not a happy situation,” says Dan McTeague with GasBuddy.com, who notes that BC relies on Alberta for about 60 per cent of the oil, gas, diesel, and jet fuel the province uses on a daily basis.
“Any disruption in that supply would have a fundamental and rather damaging impact on both prices and availability of supply in all of BC,” he says.
BC is already in a precarious fuel supply situation. Even the temporary shutdown of Burnaby’s Parkland refinery led to a 10 cent jump in gas prices, even though it was announced and planned for well in advance.
McTeague explains in that context, even a sudden five per cent reduction in oil flows from Alberta could lead to a widespread gas shortage.
“The numbers wouldn’t be small of insignificant,” he says. “We’re not talking 50 or 100 stations here, you’re looking at well over half of the stations across British Columbia being put in what’s called allocation,” where re-supplies are limited in terms of frequency and volume.
Depending on how far Alberta is willing to go, McTeague says rationing of diesel and jet fuel may be considered to limit damage to the BC economy.
