No, you’re not dreaming: the price of gasoline fell below $2 a liter yesterday at some service stations in Greater Montreal.
• Read also: Difficult to produce more oil and curb soaring prices
Several stations in the greater Montreal area advertised a liter of gasoline at $1.99. In Grenville-sur-le-Rouge and Saint-Zotique, you could even fill up for $1.95.
A liter of gasoline could cost between $1.98 and $2.13 in Montreal. Last week it was showing at $2.10 on average.
Photo Agence QMI, Thierry Laforce
The price of gasoline was just under $2 a liter yesterday morning on chemin Chambly, in Saint-Hubert in Montérégie.
In Quebec, the lowest price currently recorded on the GasBuddy platform was $2.07/L. This is down about 10¢ from last week.
Finally a break
This price drop is good for the wallets of motorists who had to deal with the average liter of gasoline amounting to $2.13 last month, according to data from CAA Quebec.
But the decline is unlikely to last given the market’s difficulty in producing more oil to drive prices down.
In order to reduce the price at the pump, the premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, announced Friday a lowering of the gasoline tax. This will save motorists an average of $465 per year, he said.
Residents of Newfoundland and Labrador and Alberta are already enjoying respite at the pumps from their provincial governments.
A false good idea
However, lowering taxes would not be a viable solution, according to Jean-Thomas Bernard, professor of economics at the University of Ottawa.
“Prices are up because demand is high compared to what is available. Lowering prices artificially does nothing to increase supply,” he said in an interview with TVA Nouvelles.
Last week, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies announced that they wanted to increase their production.
The decision is purely symbolic “given the limited capacity available”, said Tamas Varga, analyst at PVM Energy.
OPEC+ is unable to compensate for the lack of oil linked to the establishment by the United States and the European Union of an embargo on Russian deliveries.
IT’S DOWN EVERYWHERE
Average price posted yesterday in cities across Quebec
- Blainville 2,01 $
- Vaudreuil-Dorion 2,02 $
- Montréal 2,07 $
- Sherbrooke 2,13 $
- Québec 2,17 $
Source: CAA Quebec
– With the collaboration by Camille Payant and AFP