Torontonians to experience an expensive weekend at the pumps

TORONTO, Ont. – It is not the kind of thing you want to see as you head into your local gas station to top up the tank for the weekend.

The price of gas jumped 3.4 cents a litre Friday overnight, meaning motorists will pay 132.1 cents a litre at most GTA stations….until Saturday.

That’s when prices are expected to jump once again by 2.8 cents to 134.9 cents per litre.

It is a price residents have not seen in 3 years, and you can blame the rise on several factors, including the price for crude oil and wholesale gasoline shooting up.

“Oil’s up about 20 per cent this year. Part of that has to do with speculators in the market. People, companies, banks buying oil on future’s contracts, taking a bigger than average risk right now, hoping for a big profit down the road,” said 680’s afternoon business editor Richard Southern.

“To some extent, it’s really investors hoping to make a quick buck that’s driving the price for oil, and consequently the price at the pumps.”

In addition, issues around the world – such as the unrest in Libya along with a rise in demand for gas from the U.S.

“One thing that really could send gas lower is a stablizing of that situation in the mid-east,” Southern added. “If the oil in Libya were to get back onto the marketplace, that could drive the price down.”

“Also the U.S. economy [is] really starting to recover. We had some really good economic news out of the U.S. […] signs of an improving U.S. economy means a higher price for oil, for wholesale gas, and a higher price at the pumps here in the GTA.”

As a result,  the strengthening of U.S. market means a major drop in prices isn’t expected for quite some time.

But are today’s prices high enough to make drivers park their car a little more often?

“This is ridiculous,” one man who stopped to fill up Friday morning told 680News, “I don’t know where we’re going with this.”

“In one year my gas prices have gone up 50 per cent,” one driver, who commutes into Toronto from Ajax, told 680News. “That’s a huge expense.  I know wages don’t go up that much.”

“Funny how it goes up quick but it doesn’t come down very quickly,” one man told 680News. When asked if the rise in price would stop him from driving he responded, “Unfortunately some of us have to commute.”

Drivers lined up at stations around the GTA on Thursday to avoid the overnight price rise.

To look at the bright side, we are still below an all time Canadian high of $1.42 per litre set in September 2008.

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