Many Albertans who stopped to fill up their vehicle Wednesday morning were likely suffering from price shock.

While the website gasbuddy.com said the cheapest price for a litre of gasoline in Edmonton was around $1.50 per litre on Wednesday, at many others it spiked overnight to as much $184.9 per litre.

In Calgary, according to GasBuddy, the cheapest price for a litre on Wednesday was just under $1.60, but at others the price jumped by more than 30 cents overnight to about $186.9. per litre.

While that’s still relatively cheaper than Vancouver where gasbuddy.com said the lowest price for a litre of gas was $207.9, it’s also significantly more expensive than Toronto, where the cheapest price on Wednesday was $159.6 per litre.

“Fuel is outrageous right now. It’s a little bit uncontrollable,” said Francois Saad as he topped his SUV in Edmonton Wednesday morning.

“I drive a pretty old car, all things considered, but yeah, it’s about $140, sometimes $160 to fill up at least 50 to 60 litres.”

And that is despite the 10 cent cut to the federal excise tax on gasoline that took effect on April 20.

While a jump in price of more than 30 cents a litre between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning may seem extreme, one industry analyst who spoke to Global News said the higher prices are likely the new normal — because of the war in Iran.

“What’s going on is, of course, the Strait of Hormuz has not been opened and so global supply remains low,” said Richard Masson, former CEO of the Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission.

“In fact, a number of refineries that normally we’d be producing got damaged during the war already, and  the kinds of oil that are getting to refineries don’t fit as well as what happened before the war. So they don’t get to make all the gasoline and diesel that they would like to given different kinds of feedstock.”

As for the difference in price between Calgary and Edmonton, Masson said Edmonton is where the refineries are, and refined products like gasoline need to be shipped by pipeline or truck to other markets, like Calgary.

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“I’m not happy about it (but) obviously we’re reliant on it,” said Lisa Gaffney about the cost of filling up her SUV at an Edmonton Mobil station.

“I’d like to be able to afford an EV. I think it’ll be good when we get to using more EVs and having more EV chargers around and not reliant on gas quite so much,” added Gaffney.

That was a similar sentiment among many of the drivers Global News spoke with.

“We’re already at the point of looking at an EV. We have been for a while.  It has kind of been in the background, but now it’s like we should really get one,” said Thomas Helm.

“I saw like 75 per cent of the cost could be reduced if you go electric. If we’re getting to like 100 bucks, 120 bucks for gas, it is a significant difference.”

“You know, there are people who are going to just be fed up with this volatility and if you’re commuting regularly every day and you don’t really have a choice, you’ve got to accept the prices that are there (so) an EV has the potential to reduce your ongoing operating costs,” said Masson.

“Public transit, for those who can access it is a great alternative. You know, cycling, those kind of things if you can do it. But mostly it’s just going to be, it’s like a tax. Higher gasoline prices, higher natural gas prices flow through to your bottom line right away. And it’s like a tax increase. And effectively, you’re going to have to cut somewhere else in your budget to keep things balanced.”

Masson recommends motorists also shop around, to find the lowest gas price because that type of pressure “helps to keep prices down.”

However, “the big picture trend is higher prices,” said Masson.

“I think that the actual oil price right now at around $100 a barrel is a way too low for all the turmoil that the world is facing and is going through.”

“You know, the president has been trying to talk down the price. He often says, well, the war will be over in three days — and people believe him and the price doesn’t go up. But the reality is we’ve lost about a billion barrels of inventory,” said Masson.

“We can’t be sure if they say the Strait (of Hormuz) is going to open up, that it won’t get closed again and there’s insurance issues and crewing issues and the tankers are all out of position all over the world, and so it’s not going to be a flick of the switch to come back to normal. There’s going to be a new normal,” added Masson.

The price of the U.S. benchmark crude West Texas Intermediate, for June delivery, increased Wednesday by almost US$7 per barrel to US$106.88, while the price of the Brent Crude jumped briefly above US$120 before settling back to around US$118 per barrel.

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