A gas analyst says the wide range of prices Calgary drivers may have noticed lately is due to a number of different factors. Gas prices have been all over the map in Calgary. Late last week, after the province dropped its 13-cent a litre gas tax, some stations were selling gas for around $1.40 a litre or lower. But others were over $1.70 a litre. Now, most stations are charging in the $1.71 range, causing affordability-minded Calgary motorists to ask, ‘what happened to that gas tax discount?’ Patrick De Haan, the head of petroleum analysis at Gasbuddy.com attempted to explain the seesawing price swings for CTV News. “Some of those ultra low prices that we saw just a couple of days ago in the $1.30s and $1.40s, it looks like there was quite a bit of a price war that emerged as part of the tax reduction,” De Haan said. “Stations started to lower prices quickly,” De Haan added. “Then, (with) some stations, the speed of decline lowers prices further below cost, and essentially triggering a price war. And now stations that were selling below their cost have raised their price back to where prices would have been.” De Haan said just because a gas tax is removed, it doesn’t mean consumers can expect prices to fall and remain there. He said the global oil market is fluctuating up and down daily, especially with political tensions in the mideast.
