Drivers may want to fill up their tanks before midnight tonight as gas prices are expected to go up overnight and may continue to climb. Dan McTeague, president of Canadians for Affordable Energy, predicts the price of a regular litre of gas will rise throughout the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area by six cents on Wednesday, hovering at around 168.9 cents per litre. The cost of diesel is also supposed to surge by 12 cents, reaching 220.9 cents per litre. McTeague explains the future direction of gas prices will hinge upon what is currently happening in the Strait of Hormuz. “I mean this has been the wildest ride in energy prices we’ve ever seen, worse than 2008, I might add,” McTeague said in an interview with CP24 Breakfast. “It’s up and down rather radically.” Oil prices surged amid the conflict in the Middle East and the subsequent closure of the channel that is a major thoroughfare for global oil exports. Prices then levelled out when there were hopes the waterway could reopen, with prices across Ontario dropping significantly as recently as last week. “This time it’s a little different. We don’t have this midweek declaration by President Trump that things are getting better,” McTeague said. “There’s a deal just around the corner or a response by Iran that maybe there might be a cessation of hostilities.” Over the weekend, Iran said the strait would not open until the United States “corrects its behaviour,” and issued new demands that could shake up the conversations around the negotiation table on how to manage the waterway and the traffic that goes through it. “We’re looking not only at six cents for tomorrow, but likely another two to three cents a litre going up every day as energy analysts and markets are now starting to think, ‘Well, maybe this Strait of Hormuz will remain closed’,” McTeague said. The energy analyst says the Strait of Hormuz’s ongoing closure has also impacted other channels like the Red Sea, Bab el-Mandeb and the Caspian Sea. “All around the world, this crunch is here, and it’s now starting to rear its ugly head yet again this week,” McTeague said. Across the globe, McTeague estimates there is a shortage of around two billion barrels of oil and noted that the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve has recently fallen below 300 million barrels, which is below its operational minimum. “The reality is that the world is very short of oil and hydrocarbons, and this isn’t just going to impact, obviously, fuel prices, petrochemicals, think of places like Sarnia, all the things we take for granted, food products, and, of course the cost of transportation will remain elevated for the balance of ‘26, well into ‘27,” McTeague said. With files from AFP
