P.E.I. gas prices creep upward again

Gas prices on P.E.I. edged upwards once more on New Year's Eve, but remain well below their pre-pandemic values.

The Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission released the results of its regular, weekly review of petroleum product prices on Thursday morning, a day earlier than usual because of the holiday Friday.

The minimum price of a litre of self-serve regular gasoline rose 1.1 cents to $1.051. The price has been on an upward trend since early November, when it was $0.938 a litre.

On New Year's Day 2020 the price of self-serve regular gasoline was $1.159 a litre. Under normal circumstances, Islanders could have expected that price to rise in the spring and summer as demand increased.

But the pandemic killed demand, and a crude oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia slashed prices even further. Throughout April the price of gas was below $0.75.

It reached a dollar again in July, but has not remained consistently above a dollar until this month.

Heating oil and diesel prices were unchanged this week.

More from CBC P.E.I.