Gas prices across Metro Vancouver dip to new 2022 low

A new gas price low has been set in Metro Vancouver for 2022, as numbers at the pumps dip below 155.9 cents per litre.

Drivers in Surrey report seeing numbers as low as 149.9 at the Husky gas station on Fraser Highway, according to the fuel-price tracking company Gas Buddy.

That marks a 40 per cent drop from the last low record, which was set one week prior, and follows a downward trend that’s happening nationwide.

Werner Antweiler, a professor of economics at UBC’s Sauder School of Business, said there are three main factors driving down prices.

"It's driven to a large extent by the global oil markets and by the situation in Europe, but it's also driven by particular problems coming out of COVID that created volatility out of the local level,” he said.

Prices are down dramatically from September, when Metro Vancouver gas prices climbed to a record high at 241.9.

"We see actually a drop in international oil prices to levels just below US$73 a barrel and it hasn't been that low in quite a while, maybe last year," said Antweiler.

A dramatic drop came in the middle of October when prices went from 227.9 to 192.9 overnight, which analysts say was due to a West Coast pipeline and a refinery coming back online after undergoing maintenance.

While fuel costs are falling across B.C., drivers on the other side of the country are paying even less.

Fuel analyst Dan McTeague took to Twitter Wednesday to alert Ontarians that gas prices will hit a one-year low Thursday at 138.9 cents per litre.

On Thursday, GasWizard.ca predicts prices in Metro Vancouver will rise slightly to 156.9. 

Antweiler says Canadians should get used to the extreme flux in prices heading in to the new year.

"Be prepared for abrupt sudden price changes," he said.

He expects 2023 to be a rollercoaster at the gas pump.