Despite news out of Texas that a number of oil refineries that were forced to shut down in the wake of Hurricane Harvey have come back online, motorists in Greater Sudbury have yet to see much relief in the price of gasoline at the pumps.
Most stations around the city are hovering around $1.26 per litre as of Monday after the price of regular fuel shot up to almost $1.30 per litre at the beginning of the long weekend.
But this time, the long weekend wasn't to blame.
The hurricane that swept through the southern U.S. over a week ago a saw massive flooding in parts of Texas — especially in Houston, the oil capital of North America — is the culprit.
Most oil extracted in North America — even from the tar sands in western Canada — is refined south of the border. In fact, Canada hasn't even close to the refining capacity to match its raw oil output and hasn't added much capacity since the last century.
When Harvey's flood waters forced the shutdown of those Texas refineries, gasoline futures shot through the roof as energy production in the Gulf of Mexico declined by an estimated 21 per cent and 12 per cent of the total U.S. Refining capacity was taken offline.
The cheapest gas in Sudbury as of Monday evening was Independent at the Pumps, advertising a litre of gas at 124.9 cents, according to GasBuddy.
The most expensive in town appears to be UPI Energy on Main Street East in Chelmsford at 131.9 cents per litre.
As the flood waters in and around Houston finally begin to recede and the long weekend here in Canada comes to a close, we should see gas prices fall back to more palatable levels.
However, it may still take a few more days of pain at the pumps before that happens.
In the meantime, drive with a light foot.
