Hurricane Harvey forces gas prices to skyrocket across New Brunswick

It's official: New Brunswick gas prices haven't been this high in almost a decade jumping by13.1 cents a litre onThursday.

The maximum price of regular self-serveis sittingat $1.26/litre. This is the biggest increase in gas prices the province has seen innine years.

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TheThursdayrise is a delayed reaction to Hurricane Harvey, which caused turmoil in petroleum markets and rising street prices across much of eastern North America all last week.

Some gas stations across the province were extra busy Wednesdayas consumers made sure to fill up before apredicted increaseof 14 cents a litre wentinto effect at midnight.

There were lineups at some stations, including theFrederictonCostco,where employees weredirecting traffic as vehicles lined up to fill their tanks.

The wholesale prices of gasoline jumped 14 cents per litre last week as Harvey slammed Texas oil refineries and petroleum traders in New York bid prices up rapidly.

The last major one-day price increase on gasoline in New Brunswick was 12.8 cents on Sept. 13, 2008. That was triggered by another hurricane Ike, which hit Texas. But the increase lasted less than a week.

Here's why N.B. gas prices are set to skyrocket

7 years ago

Duration 1:16

CBC News New Brunswick's Gas Guru Robert Jones expects the full effect of Hurricane Harvey fallout to be felt at the pumps this Thursday.