Gas, diesel, heating oil prices up in unscheduled change

Russia's invasion of Ukraine is continuing to play havoc with world petroleum markets, leading to prices on P.E.I. bouncing back up again overnight.

The price at the pump on Tuesday morning for a litre of self-serve, regular gasoline is up 5.8 cents to $1.723. Diesel is up 11.5 cents to $1.998, and the maximum price for heating oil up 10.5 cents to $1.575.

This was an unscheduled price review from the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission, the fourth this month. IRAC schedules weekly price reviews for Fridays.

After the beginning of the war in Ukraine world oil prices spiked. Russia is a major producer of oil, and there were concerns supply could be disrupted. On March 8 P.E.I. prices hit new records, even taking into account inflation.

Early last week world prices fell on news OPEC might increase output. That led to prices falling again on P.E.I. at the end of the week, though not to where they were in February, which was already relatively high.

By mid-week world prices were rising again, and that has been reflected in the increase in P.E.I. prices Tuesday.