Gas prices jump more than 25 cents in Edmonton

Gas prices spiked by as much as 27 cents for a few hours in Edmonton Friday as Hurricane Ike threatened to damage oil refineries in the Gulf Coast.

Some stations, including the Oliver Square Safeway, increased prices to $1.52/L early Friday as many motorists made their way to work.

"I don't like it," driver Robert Morling said. "I'm amazed. I think it was $1.30 or so the last time I looked."

By noon Friday, Safeway gas officials lowered the price down to $1.40/L.

The threat of Ike also sent the price of oil up 94 cents to US$101.81 a barrel Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange in Singapore.

David Doig, an oil and gas analyst, said refineries in the Gulf Coast have made significant improvements to withstand storms after hurricane Katrina and Rita.

"The good thing is the storm is passing to the south of where the majority of these platforms are -- a lot of these evacuations are just for precautionary measures," Doig said.

"They don't think they're going to get any damage to the rigs themselves but it will do damage to production."

Exxon Mobil Corp., Valero Energy Corp., ConocoPhillips and Marathon Oil Co. were among the companies halting operations ahead of Ike's arrival.

Doig said with the refineries down, companies won't be able to convert the crude oil into gasoline.

Canada-wide price hike

Meanwhile, other cities across Canada joined in on the hurricane-inspired gas gouge.

In southern Ontario, the price of gas shot up by about 13 cents after midnight to more than $1.36 a litre. According to GasBuddy.com, gas prices in Montreal were close to $1.37 a litre and near $1.36 in Winnipeg.

Liberal MP Dan McTeague, a veteran gas-price watcher, said Friday that the problem is bigger than the threat of Ike.

"The price increase at the world market for gasoline went up 16 cents a gallon (Friday)," McTeague said. "We've been paying... something in the order of 48 cents a gallon.

"Clearly, there's something wrong with the state of competition in the gasoline industry in Canada."

McTeague said refineries have lowered production as the price of oil has declined in the past seven weeks.

He said the industry has "decided that it doesn't want to produce."

"They've actually created a scarcity situation just in advance of the next stage of increases as we head into the colder season -- not just for diesel, not just for gasoline, but for home heating fuel," said McTeague.

He said if there are not enough fossil fuels then maybe it's time to look at the Liberals' Green Shift plan which would help create alternative sources of energy.