After a month of gas prices above $2-per-litre, drivers will notice a little bit of relief this week.

Pumps throughout Portage la Prairie have dipped to 199.9 cents-per-litre, and Patrick De Haan, Head of Petroleum Analysis at GasBuddy, said earlier today, this could be a trend, noting gas prices tend to move for several weeks at a time.

"Oil prices are plummeting yet again this morning," says De Haan. "A barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude oil is down five-and-a-half dollars a barrel as stock markets plummet. The wholesale price of gasoline is also seeing huge declines. The average decline here about five to six cents-per-litre this morning, so, that could deliver further relief across the province here in the week ahead, should oil prices maintain the dip."

He says it's difficult to predict too far into the future as there are many things going on behind the scenes, such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the concern for an economic downturn.

"We could see a spike in prices should there be any disruptions at the refining level. Things like a hurricane or unexpected shutdowns could cause prices to surge well beyond the $2-per-litre mark in the future," says De Haan. "If we don't get any storms or hurricanes, or disruptions, we could eventually see prices falling to $1.75-per-litre by later this fall. It's not impossible, by the end of the year, we could be closer to $1.50-per-litre."

As of 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, across Manitoba, prices averaged around 200.8 cents-per-litre, according to GasBuddy.com.

Here is the ranking of the provinces/territories (cents-per-litre):
Alberta: 187.1
Ontario: 189.2
New Brunswick: 199.1
Saskatchewan: 200.2
Manitoba: 200.8
Nova Scotia: 204.0
Quebec: 206.4
PEI: 210.9
British Columbia: 212.3
Northwest Territories: 213.3
Newfoundland and Labrador: 216.0

See the updated ranking here.

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