매니토바/위니펙 소식

위니펙 자동차기름값 치솟아 - 전날보다 15센트 인상

작성일 2008.09.12 17:08

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위니펙 자동차 기름(Gas) 값이 주말을 맞아 하루 밤만에 15센트가 인상이 되는 등 기름값이 요동을 쳤습니다.

위니펙 프리 프레스(Winnipeg Free Press) 2008년 9월 12일 11시 뉴스에 따르면 위니펙(Winnipeg)의 어느 주유소는 전날에 비하여 15센트가 인상된 1리터(1L)당 $1.47이 되는 등 위니펙시내 대부분의 주유소의 기름값이 급작스럽게 인상이 되었습니다.

기사에 따르면 오늘 아침 9시경에 조사한 바에 따르면

Safeway(McPhillips St. & Jefferson Ave.) : $1.47/리터

7-Eleven(Archibald St. & Elizabeth Rd.) : $1.46/리터

7-Eleven(Henderson Highway) : $1.44/리터

이었다고 합니다.

이는 미국으로 다가오는 허리케인 아이크(IKE) 의 영향으로 미국 텍사스 휴스톤에 있는 석유정제시설이 잠시 운전이 중지될 가능성때문에 석유값이 오른다고 합니다. 텍사스 휴스톤의 석유정제시설은 북미대륙의 석유소비량중 20%를 공급하고 있다고 합니다.

자동차 기름값 조사 웹사이트인 GasBuddy.com 에 따르면 위니펙(Winnipeg)는 오늘 평균 기름값이 리터당 $1.35 로 캐나다에서 4번째로 높은 도시로 나와 있다고 합니다.(정정: 캐나다에서 위니펙이 제일 기름값이 높은 도시로 기록되었답니다.)

빅토리아(Victoria)시는 평균 기름값이 리터당 $1.38 로 오늘 아침 캐나다에서 평균 기름값이 제일 높은 도시로 기록되었고, 그 뒤로 밴투버와 토론토가 뒤따랐다고 합니다. 위니펙은 평균 기름값이 $1.26 인 에드몬튼(Edmonton)을 포함한 다른 캐나다의 도시보다 거의 리터당 10센트가 더 비쌌습니다.

올해는 석유값의 급격한 상승으로 전세계 경제가 얼어붙어 버리고, 서민들도 각종 요금의 인상으로 힘들었던 한 해로 기록될 것 같네요.

좀 더 자세한 기사는 아래를 참조하세요.

Winnipeg gas soars 15 cents

Updated: September 12 at 11:17 AM CDT

Winnipeggers filling up their gas tank are in for a shock today as prices at some stations spike to $1.47 cents a litre - an overnight increase of about 15 cents.

Before 9 a.m., the gas price at Safeway at McPhillips Street and Jefferson Avenue reached $1.47 cents a litre. The 7-Eleven on Archibald Street and Elizabeth Road hit $1.46 cents a litre and the price at another 7-Eleven on Henderson Highway hit $1.44 cents a litre.

This morning's posted price of $1.47.9 is at the Safeway gas bar at Jefferson Avenue and McPhillips Street. (Wayne Glowacki / Winnipeg Free Press )

According to gas tracker website GasBuddy.com, Winnipeg has the fourth highest average gas prices in the country today, at $1.35 cents a litre.

Victoria recorded the highest average gas prices in the country this morning, where residents pay $1.38 cents a litre, followed by Vancouver and Toronto.

Winnipeg pays close to 10 cents more a litre than other places across the country, including Edmonton, where the average price of gas this morning was $1.26 cents a litre.

John McCallum, a finance professor at the I.H. Asper School of Business at the University of Manitoba, said wholesale oil prices will go "through the roof" because of the threat Hurricane Ike poses to oil pipelines and refineries near Houston, TX.

McCallum said Ike is poised to strike Houston dead on, which could potentially shut down oil lines and refineries for a period of time. Houston is home to about 20 per cent of North America's oil supply.

Drivers are lining up to fill their tanks this morning before the price increases at their local gas station. (Mike Aporius / Winnipeg Free Press )

McCallum said it's too early to tell whether prices will go down, but noted that gas prices went back to normal after Hurricane Gustav didn't do as much damage to New Orleans as predicted.

"It's absolutely too early to say," he said. "There is a possibility this hurricane will not be nearly as damaging as people think and in 10 days it'll be business as usual."

At a federal election campaign stop in Halifax, Harper said it "appeared" to be the case, when asked if there was price gouging going on.

Earlier this summer, criminal charges were laid against 13 people and 11 companies for fixing gasoline prices in Quebec. Three of the companies pleaded guilty and were fined a total of $2 million.

Liberal MP Dan McTeague, who has gained a reputation for predicting pump price increases based on the wholesale market in the United States, predicted more increases for Canadian motorists later today.

News of the looming increases had motorists lining up past gas stations in several other Canadian cities as they tried to beat the jump in price.

The threat of hurricane Ike to Gulf Coast oil refineries sent wholesale gasoline prices in the U.S. soaring yesterday over supply concerns.

As well, U.S. gasoline supplies have dropped by several million barrels over the last week, according to data released by the U.S. Energy Department.

While McTeague said the threat posed by the hurricane was the "spark" that triggered the increase, he also pointed the finger at the Canadian oil industry.

"The proverbial fuel on the fire is in fact the distortions by an unresponsive, uncompetitive market that has actually been diminishing its output," McTeague said in a phone interview from his Toronto-area riding where he was campaigning for re-election last night.

Federal competition reviews of the Canadian industry have repeatedly determined it is highly competitive and reacts to changes in the continental market for gasoline, which is traded as a commodity just like wheat, grain, nickel and oil.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE:XOM), Valero Energy Corp., ConocoPhillips and Marathon Oil Co. were among the companies halting operations at refineries on the Texas coast as Ike churned toward the state.

Refineries along the upper Texas Gulf Coast account for about one-fifth of U.S. refining capacity. Exxon Mobil's refinery in Baytown, outside Houston, is the largest in the United States.

In a related development today, a North Carolina-based convenience store chain asked U.S. customers in 11 states -- mostly across the Southeast -- to limit gasoline purchases to 10 gallons to avoid a run on supplies.

Another veteran gas-price watcher, Jason Toews, who runs GasBuddy.com, said fear of Ike carried over the border to Canada.

"With the hurricane in the gulf certainly going to cause some problems with supplies of crude oil and gasoline, mostly refined gasoline, in the U.S... it may have ripple effects all the way up to Canada," Toews said.

"What they have to do to fill that void is bring in gas from neighbouring states, and it has a ripple effect because those neighbouring states all of sudden don't have enough gas and they have to bring in gas," he said.

"Gas is trucked in from across the region, and across the country (United States), and from Canada."

The Canadian Press

(출처 : 위니펙 프리 프레스)