A fuel shortage spreading across the B.C. Interior isn’t having much of an impact, so far, in Williams Lake.
Lucas Nelson, manager of Sun Valley Gas in Williams Lake, said the Highway 97 station did run out of fuel on Saturday and wasn’t resupplied until Sunday.
Now, though, he said they have plenty of fuel.
“And there’s more on the way,” he said. “Hopefully the shortage won’t affect us. As of right now there isn’t one, but you never know.”
Both Chevron and Petro Canada stations in Williams Lake also confirmed they have not been affected by the shortage.
A Chevron station in Prince Rupert, meanwhile, didn’t get its delivery on Wednesday evening, so it was selling Supreme Plus gas at regular prices – 130.9 cents a litre. The attendant said they ran out of fuel the day before. A nearby 7-Eleven was also out of regular gas.
A Petro-Canada station in Quesnel hung up signs notifying customers they were temporally out of fuel on Monday through until late Tuesday evening. The owner said he had diesel only for most of Tuesday.
A Chevron station in Smithers was also out of regular fuel on Monday night.
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Dan McTeague, the senior petroleum analyst for Gasbuddy.com, said is linked to longer than expected maintenance at a Suncor refinery in Edmonton. Suncor operates Petro-Canada, making up 25 per cent of all oil refined in Western Canada.
“Much of the gas in [the] region is sent from there to the Petro-Canada terminal in Kamloops,” McTeague said.
“At last report, the company was trying to source fuel from the U.S.”
Said Suncor spokesperson Nicole Fisher in an email: “We understand that this is an inconvenience for our customers and we apologize. We are doing everything we can to minimize the impact, including sourcing additional supply.”
Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island gas stations won’t be affected, McTeague said, as that fuel come from the Parkland refinery in Burnaby as well as one in Washington State.
McTeague says the temporary pump closures could last into mid-June.
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In the meantime, McTeague says drivers can expect rotating gas shortages as the fuel is spread evenly to local stations, but prices should not be drastically affected.
shannon.lough@thenorthernview.com
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