Gas shortages are occurring at some of Suncor’s Petro-Canada gas stations throughout Western Canada, including the station along Voght Street in Merritt.
An employee at the local Petro-Canada said the station is currently out of regular and diesel fuel.
According to other media reports, Suncor is experiencing supply shortages to retail outlets in Western Canada due to oil sands shutdowns caused by the Fort McMurray wildfire and an outage at a refinery in Edmonton.
The shortage could also impact other gas stations as more people will be relying on the supply of alternative sources, said Dan McTeague, senior petroleum analyst for Canada with Gasbuddy.com.
“More people will not be buying gasoline at Petro-Canada, they’ll be buying it at Chevron or Esso or Shell, or whoever the other alternative,” McTeague said, adding that the shift in demand could create more problems.
He said there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight to the shortage.
“ We need too hear sooner rather than later from Suncor as to how long this is going to continue,” McTeague said.
He said he’s heard of shortages in the B.C. Interior including places such as Merritt and Vernon.
“That’s where the TransMountain pipeline has it’s first major hub for delivery,” McTeague said.
He also said the shortage won’t help bring gas prices down any time soon.
Sunoco is reportedly bringing in more gasoline and diesel by truck and rail from its own network as well as from third parties, and while it’s unknown at this time when the supplies will return to normal, the company is working to restore the refinery and restart its oil sands operations to provide more crude oil input to its system.
