Gas prices in the Greater Toronto Area are poised to rise by another five cents per litre overnight amid ongoing tensions in the Middle East.
Industry analyst Dan McTeague tells CP24 that the average price of a litre of gas in the GTA will hit 153.9 cents at midnight after increasing by a penny overnight.
McTeague said that the recent runup in gas prices is a result of tensions in the Middle East. Iran launched at least 180 missiles into Israel on Tuesday in response to the recent killings of Hezbollah and Hamas leaders. Israel, for its part, has vowed to retaliate.
“It has certainly woken up markets,” McTeague said. “One would expect oil prices to be in the $70 a barrel range and gasoline to be about 10 cents a litre more than it was last weekend when the highest price we were paying here in the GTA was no more than $1.45 per litre.”
McTeague said that as recently as last week the average price of a litre of regular in Toronto was approximately 20 cents per litre lower than it was at the same time last year, providing some relief to drivers.
While he said that he expects gas prices locally might continue to rise by another 10 to 15 cents per litre amid the ongoing instability in the Middle East, the precise trajectory will like hinge on the response from Israel.
“We could very well find ourselves with prices that could go a lot higher and perhaps even towards $90 a barrel (from $74 currently) but that is the worst cases scenario,” he said. “These is no one out there right who knows how this is going to go.”