An expert on the oil and gas industry is crediting the presence of the Husky refinery in our own backyard for shielding the city's Petro-Canada service stations from a shortage of gas brought on by the Fort McMurray wildfire.
Forced by the blaze to shut down its operation in the Alberta oil sand which, in turn, led to a shortage of feedstock at its Edmonton refinery, the chain's owner, Suncor, imposed "allocation" on its outlets across Western Canada.
That led to pump closures in the southern Interior and the Okanagan. But Prince George's Petro-Canada stations have escaped the fallout and Dan McTeague, an analyst at Gasbuddy.com, said the Husky plant is the reason.
"It's based on whoever the leader is in a supplied market," McTeague said. "If you're an Esso supplied market or a Husky supplied market or a Shell supplied market, you're probably not going to have too much trouble."
The Husky plant has a capacity to produce about 14,000 barrels per day of gas and diesel, according to McTeague.
Suncor said Monday it's resuming operations at its oil sands facility and it should be at full production by the end of June. The unit of its Edmonton refinery affected by the shortage "is expected to be back in service by the end of the week and Suncor is currently working to minimize the supply disruptions to its retail and wholesale customers," the company said in a news release.
The plant's presence hasn't protected the city from an increase in the price at the pump. As of Tuesday, regular was 117.9 cents at most Prince George gas stations, representing a 10-cent jump from slightly more than a week ago.
That's also up from the reigning price from a year ago, when regular stood at 110.9 cents, according to The Kent Group Ltd., which track gas prices on a weekly basis. But drivers can also take some comfort in the fact regular stood at a lofty 134.9 cents two years ago.
