What’s causing the gas prices to increase in Winnipeg

Gas prices are on their way up in Winnipeg, and it’s largely because of the frigid temperatures.

According to Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, the city has seen a jump of eight cents a litre over the last week.

He said this is because of the extremely cold weather causing some refineries in the United States to shut down.

“It also caused a lot of oil production to temporarily go offline because of those sub-freezing temperatures,” he explained.

The Houthi attacks in the Red Sea have also caused the price increase at the pumps, as they have driven up the price of oil to about $75 a barrel.

“There’s been a bit of renewed pressure on the price of gasoline and unfortunately that’s showing up at gas bars across much of the province,” De Haan said.

As for whether Winnipeggers can expect prices to lower any time soon, De Haan said this won’t be the case.

He noted that he doesn’t expect gas prices to get much lower than they are now, and that as we get closer to mid-February we will see seasonal increases every few weeks.

“By May long [weekend] we could see gas prices that are 20 to 35 cents a litre higher than where they are today partly due to that seasonality,” he said.

“It’s going to be progressive increases really starting in early to mid-February.”

However, it’s not all bad news. De Haan said Manitoba's gas price average sits around $1.20 a litre.

“Manitoba is by far the lowest-priced province,” he said.

"A lot of it has to do with the fact that gasoline taxes have been reduced with the start of the new year.”