Third straight week of decreases will see a one to two cent price drop
New Brunswick gas prices are on their way down again this week.
When the provincial Energy and Utilities Board makes its weekly adjustment tonight at midnight, the maximum retail price of gasoline will drop by between one to two cents.
It will be the third straight week of price decreases, as prices dropped almost one cent to 98.46 cents per litre for regular gasoline last week. Also last week, mid-grade gasoline fell to 101.85 cents per litre, while premium dropped to 105.24 cents per litre.
Thus far in 2010, prices have increased twice and dropped twice in the weekly adjustments. The highest maximum retail gas price of the year has been 102.01 cents per litre on Jan. 13, while prices are currently as low as they have been all year.
At this time last year, maximum retail prices were 79.7 cents per litre. In 2008, gas prices sat at 104.92 cents per litre at this point of the year and in 2007 they were 84.4 cents per litre.
In other regulated regions of Atlantic Canada, Nova Scotia's gas prices dropped by almost two cents per litre on Friday. Prices in that province now range between 102.8 and 104.5 cents per litre in the Halifax area and are slightly higher outside the city. The next adjustment is scheduled for Friday.
In Prince Edward Island the last adjustment came on Monday and saw prices drop by 2.4 cents per litre. Including adjustments for taxes, pump prices for regular unleaded gasoline at self-serve outlets will now range from 97.8 to 99.9 cents per litre. The province's next scheduled price adjustment will be on Feb. 15.
Yesterday, benchmark crude for March delivery rose to over US$76 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That's similar to where prices were in late November 2009, at which point the maximum retail gas price in New Brunswick was 99.2 cents per litre.
In other adjustments from last week, diesel, furnace oil and propane each fell about a cent each, to 102.41, 83.02 and 104.17 cents per litre, respectively.
The N.B. benchmark rate is based on the average daily price at the N.Y. Harbor division of the N.Y. Mercantile Exchange.
All N.B. prices listed here do not include the up to 2.5 cent per litre delivery charge. Heating oil and propane prices listed do not include the up to 10-cent delivery cost.
