Drivers should wait a day to fill up as gas prices are set to slide six cents on Thursday.
“The best day to buy gasoline looks like Thursday tomorrow,” GasBuddy.com senior analyst Dan McTeague said. “But that could go back up due to volatility.”
Prices in cities like Victoria, Nanaimo and Courtenay could see prices drop to the mid-1.30s.
Speaking by phone with Black Press Media, McTeague said the recent decrease in gas prices is linked to refineries in Washington State coming back online.
Thursday’s drop, however, is linked to an “historic” seven-cent drop in crude oil prices that McTeague said comes after expected sanctions on Iran did not hurt global oil supply as expected.
Instead, he said oil has dropped almost $20 a barrel since the start of October.
“The U.S. State Department gave waivers to pretty much every country that matters [in oil trading]… effectively creating a glut,” McTeague said.
“Russia, Ukraine, Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries had decided to up supply in response.”
McTeague said gas prices could jump again by a cent on Friday, but doesn’t expect to see anything like the highs of 163.9 cents a litre in Metro Vancouver in recent months.
“Short of some kind of refinery issue or unusually cold winter or some geopolitical event… gas will stay in the 1.35 to 1.45 range.”
