A shock at the pumps for Okotoks residents as prices at some stations prices jumped to $127.9/L Thursday.

According to Dan McTeague, Senior Petroleum Analyst with GasBuddy.com, in Alberta we've see an across the board 15 cent a litre increase wholesale cost to most gas stations, who then pass those increases on to consumers.

Two weeks ago it cost a gas station about 97 cents to buy fuel, that has now grown to 1.14 today.

McTeague says the large increase was the perfect storm of low supply and high demand.

"That's directly related to a pipeline disruption in the U.S. Midwest, known as the Explorer Pipeline which is finally fixed," he says."There was also a couple of refineries that delayed doing fall maintenance, refineries have to do that periodically in order to prevent any long term damage. But many refineries in the U.S. Midwest decided to hold off maintenance because they needed to produce gasoline critically at the beginning of September when hurricane Harvey hit, and knocked out about a quarter of all U.S. gasoline production."

He shares demand is also skyrocketing in the U.S. as there was a big shock to suppliers just a few weeks ago.

"A million barrels of gasoline suddenly disappeared in the week leading up to last Friday, and that continued into this week. So those who have obligations to supply gasoline were looking for anyone to sell them gasoline, and of course that drove average spot prices up."

Canada's gasoline prices are based on U.S. markets, which means the the U.S. Midwest gasoline market have a big impact on us up north.

McTeague predicts gas prices staying in the $1.15/L range for the next few weeks at least, until there is a clearer picture of supply and demand in the U.S.

He adds come 2018, we'll all be seeing a permanent increase.

"As the dust settles on that lets not forget the Alberta government will be increasing its Carbon Tax once again by at least 2.5 cents a litre January 1, so 56 days from now you will see a permanent increase cemented into the price of fuel."

For a listing of gas prices in Okotoks click here.

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