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Haven't seen it with my own two eyes and not showing on Gas Buddy yet but have heard report of a 119.9 on at least one station sign?

Checked Gasbuddy and in Portage and Winnipeg it's down to 116.4

Husky, Fas Gas and Co-op on Richmond are down to 119.9

If a major refinery shuts down for maintenance or whatever, then it stands to reason that there will be less gasoline available. The Law of Supply and Demand applies. When there is less of something available that normally is in demand, the price goes up. If we had more refineries, especially in Canada, the price likely wouldn't have increased by as much as it did.  
 
I wouldn't count on any new refineries being built any time soon though. Unless, of course, you want the government to build them using taxpayer's money. The oil companies sure aren't going to build them, not now. Not with the world price of a barrel of oil in the $40-$50 range and the prospect of Iranian oil hitting the world market, further driving down the price per barrel. Then, there's all of the whining and screaming that they would have to put up with from the NIMBY crowd. As soon as they disclosed where they were going to build the refinery, every environmental activist group in the country and some who aren't, would show up and be chaining themselves to trees and anything else they could find. The greenies would immediately announce that there was some rare species of twelve legged spotted ant that had to be protected and declare the whole area as "environmentally sensitive", one of their regular tactics. Meanwhile, it would take years, even decades, before the oil company would be allowed to build their refinery, if they would ever be allowed to build at all.  
 
But why would they even want to build? It would cost an exorbitant amount to build it and would result in them selling gasoline at a lower price. If you were in business would you spend a whole lot of money to do something if it meant that you would have to sell your products and services for less than what you're selling them for now?  
 
There are some gas bars that always raise their prices first and drop them last. Those are the ones that I avoid like the plague. If you've noticed which ones do that, you may want to avoid them too. I also like to buy from the ones that have useful rewards programs. Anyway, if you compare the price of a litre of gas to the hourly minimum wage, the price of gas really hasn't gone up that much over the years. It remains to be seen if it will drop and by how much, after the peak driving season is over and that US refinery is up and running again.  
 
 
 
Edited by Triplethreat, 2015-08-18 17:24:21

Not really.  
 
When the announcement came out about the refinery doing maintenance there was no mention of reduced supplies by any of the oil related news wires or commodity news wires, and most in the oil industry knew that the price of gas was sliding back to levels seen earlier in the year. The rise in prices was merely on hype, and if one checks refinery prices or gasoline futures this becomes very obvious. Refiners did try to push prices but the driving season is over in the US with many kids now back in school. Just like oil there is a surplus of gasoline when looking at the world market.

Gas at the Co-op 40 miles East of Brandon is $114.9 and the Co-ops in town are $119.9  
 
Weird especially since the Co-op fuel refinery is in Regina to the West. I'm sure there must be a logical reason for such a big difference...  
 
Edited by GuyR, 2015-08-19 13:09:33

Oil down a $1.80 today to $40.80 so gas should go down but that was the excuse in the olden days.  
 
What the price increase was really about is that they jumped it 20 cents pissing people off and now if it drops 10 cents everyone will be happy even though there was no justification for the original pop. It is just a game the oil companies play and the retailers in Brandon are getting better at it also.  
 
Edited by Reggie 2, 2015-08-19 15:48:13

It's slowly coming down. Halifax is less than $1.00 Lol. Has anyone seen gas cheaper in Halifax than Brandon Area. Cheaper out west and East. What's Brandon up too.  

When I was in Beausejour today I paid 105.9 for gas.  
 
Edited by hildebeb, 2015-08-28 23:21:50

A few stations in Winnipeg have run out of gas. With the refinery shutdowns, supply has been tight.

It was 101.4 at Co-op on highway 1 near Austin this afternoon

Shell refinery had to shut down causing the the Shell stations to run out of fuel and no effect of the gas price. Yet a BP refinery has issues and the price jumps 20 cents. That increase had nothing to do with supply and demand, but causing un-needed panic. Also the gas experts were saying not to expect the prices to go down anytime soon, yet today we are back to where we were prior weeks after.  
 
So what will these so called experts do now for an excuse? One moment the gas price is tied to oil price, and the next it's not. Same with supply and demand. Why don't these experts just say the gas price is going up because they can jack it up no matter the reason.

Maybe the experts are just as confused as everyone else. But most 'experts' that I've seen on the news have all said that prices will go down a bit, but not to the level we expect with oil being as low as we are. Guess we must be listening to different 'experts'.

Gas prices are certainly frustrating and as a farmer, increases sure hurt as we use much more than the average person. Calling oil companies crooked is natural, but think about a couple things first. If they were making enormous profits, why are their share prices down so dramatically? As I understand it, refineries are current making great money, but that is rare for refineries. Kind of like the really good years in farming. Also, look at our Coops. They are selling gas at very similar prices and return all profits to their members. If the profit really is big, buy from your co-op and you will get it back at dividend time. Truthfully, I bet it won't be much different than previous years. Co-op has a refinery as well, just doesn't have oil wells as far as I know.  
My advice is to fill up mostly at your co-op, or where the best price is. Those 2 things help keep them all accountable.

Trevor B said "Shell refinery had to shut down causing the the Shell stations to run out of fuel and no effect of the gas price. Yet a BP refinery has issues and the price jumps 20 cents. That increase had nothing to do with supply and demand, but causing un-needed panic. Also the gas experts were saying not to expect the prices to go down anytime soon, yet today we are back to where we were prior weeks after.     So what will these so called experts do now for an excuse? One moment the gas price is tied to oil price, and the next it's not. Same with supply and demand. Why don't these experts just say the gas price is going up because they can jack it up no matter the reason. "

What would it accomplish if the experts said something different? It might make you feel better (or maybe worse, who knows), but I doubt it would change anything to do with the prices.

nothing, but it's evident they can say what ever they want to justify the increases.

comment was taken seriously by ultraguy when it was rhetorical question.