Drivers woke up to more pain at the pumps Monday as prices reached 157.9 cents a litre in parts of Metro Vancouver – and analysts predict they will rise even further mid-week.
Dan McTeague of GasBuddy.com said gas should hit 158.9 on Wednesday, breaking the region's all-time record high for fuel prices, then continue climbing even higher next month.
"We're looking at $1.62 for the end of the month of May," McTeague said. "I would not be surprised to see us pushing 162.9 at various times throughout the summer."
McTeague previously predicted prices would reach $1.60 this summer, but said the situation is shaping up to be even worse than his original forecast.
Some of the factors currently at play include the rising cost of crude and the floundering loonie, McTeague said.
"In the past two or three weeks we've seen not just the switch over from winter to summer gasoline, but we've also seen the price of crude rise from $62 to $69 a barrel," he told CTV News. "We've seen the Canadian dollar drop in value."
Drivers elsewhere in Metro Vancouver have paid 157.9 cents a litre at least once before; a single gas station in Delta reached that price back in June 2014.
But it breaks Vancouver's previous record of 156.9, which was recorded just last month as refineries in B.C. and Washington state closed for repairs.
McTeague warned that even when all the refineries reopen, supply will still be an issue as the warming weather sends more and more people out into their cars.
"There's just not enough gasoline to go around," he said.
With files from CTV Vancouver's David Molko
