Gas prices in Kamloops, Okanagan at the top for Canadian markets

From Kamloops to the Okanagan motorists are getting less relief from low fuel prices than their counterparts elsewhere in the country.

Fuel prices dipped in April to lows not seen in decades before rising around 15 cents a litre at the end of the month.

Since then, the price of a litre of fuel has remained pretty much unchanged, with prices at the pumps this morning, May 15, as follows, according to GasBuddy.com:

• Kamloops 99.9 to 105.9 cents per litre of regular fuel
• Vernon 98.2 to 102.9 cents per litre of regular fuel
• Kelowna 105.9 cents per litre of regular fuel
• Penticton 102.9 to 103.9 cents per litre of regular fuel
• Merritt 99.9 to 105.9 cents per litre of regular fuel
• Princeton 107.9 cents per litre of regular fuel

British Columbia currently has the highest average gas price provincially at 103.1 cents per litre, compared to Nova Scotia at 80.3 cents and Alberta, at 80.6 cents.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling for British Columbia to scrap the carbon tax, noting Interior residents currently pay 38 cents in tax out of each litre of gas.

Kent Group Ltd. senior vice president Michael Ervin says in late April, Kamloops terminal wholesale fuel prices were in line with those of other markets, but since then have risen considerably.

Fuel is supplied to Kamloops for distribution to other local markets by the Trans Mountain pipeline, Ervin says.

The pipeline also carries crude oil and in these days of COVID-19 and the accompanying slowdown in oil consumption, it may mean there is less capacity for the pipeline to carry refined products.

“It’s speculative, but it probably means there’s low inventory at the Kamloops terminal, which is resulting in firming up of local markets,” he says.

He says the Vancouver market is also supplied by the Trans Mountain pipeline, but has access to other products in that market.

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