Fuel prices spike in Sask. City, puzzling gas station owner

A gas station manager is offering some information about a mysterious spike in gas prices that only seemed to hit the City of Melfort last week.

Terry Tremblay, general manager of Prairie North Co-op in Melfort, was leaving work last Friday when he noticed a bigger buzz than normal at his pumps.

He described it as “just ridiculously busy, like lined up at every pump in every direction.”

Not knowing what was causing the sudden surge in popularity, Tremblay said he noticed that one of his three competitors in town had raised their gas prices by 20 cents per litre.

“The price had gone up in the area, and so that was driving demand to our station, because we were still at the original price,” Tremblay said.

He said he doesn’t know exactly what caused the other stations to jump in price, but said he had a decision to make with how their station would react.

“All of a sudden our demand was way up, and we didn’t know what our supply was like,” Tremblay said. “The problem is … if we lower (prices) and demand spikes, and we can’t get product.”

In a move to curb demand while he evaluated his station’s gasoline supply, Tremblay said he raised his prices, though not as high as his competitors, to make sure his station didn’t run out of fuel at the pumps.

Tremblay said they went up to about $2.16 per litre, while the other stations were around $2.26.

Once he determined their fuel supply and transportation options were secure and running out of product wasn’t a risk, Tremblay said he lowered prices back to the low-two-dollar range again.

Employees at the Circle K/Shell and Mobil gas stations in Melfort said decisions about setting gas prices are made by their parent companies and aren’t decided at their individual stations.