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By Nick Nielsen

Average fuel price in Sask at $1.332

Saskatchewan gas prices trending downward while rest of country does the opposite

May 21, 2025 | 1:58 PM

Gas prices around Saskatchewan are going against the national trend, with the average price in Saskatchewan gradually going down in the province according to GasBuddy.com. There is a number of factors at play and a lot of uncertainty thanks to the threat of tariffs from the south.

Patrick De Haan, a petroleum analyst with GasBuddy, said the pause on the carbon tax is doing enough heavy lifting to offset the usual price increase when we see when the pumps switch to summer fuel.

“A lot of the reason is that the carbon tax pause offset a lot of it number one. Number two, OPEC started raising oil production in April, and number three a lot of the uncertainty brought on by President Trump’s trade policies has really muted the seasonal rise that we tend to see. Normally, we see a much larger increase as refineries are undergoing maintenance, that summer changeover is happening, but because a lot of the uncertainty introduced by tariffs, I mean the stock market had plummeted in April. So a lot of the uncertainty brought on by those kind of knee jerk changes to trade really caused oil prices to plummet.”

The average gas price for regular gasoline at $1.400 per litre in Canada right now, and that’s after an initial drop in April from the carbon tax break that saw the price across the country down to $1.336 on May 5. In Saskatchewan however, the average price around the province is sitting at $1.332 and is continuing to trend down.

As for why Saskatchewan is still seeing lower prices than the rest of the country, Saskatchewan gas prices are likely to catch up with the rest of Canada once a few refinery issues in the U.S. are figured out.

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“There’s a little bit of a mixed bag happening right now. Some areas of Canada, B.C., specifically the western provinces of Canada have been impacted by some refinery issues in the U.S. West Coast, but oil prices have bumped back up. After touching as low as $58, we’re back up to about $63 a barrel and so part of the reason we’ve seen some increases here and there depending on where you are is because of the jump in the price of oil that’s occurred over the last week on optimism that some of the trade policies are now being walked back a bit,” De Haan said.

With the threat of potential tariffs coming from U.S. President Donald Trump, the tariffs themselves haven’t had a direct effect on gas prices. That isn’t to say they haven’t had any effect though as the uncertainty around changing trade deals and the conclusion of the Canadian election has made the gas price market jump around.

“I mean the level of uncertainty this year has been something that we haven’t seen before and a lot of it is because of sudden and abrupt shifts and policy changes that have come. Look at Canada as well, the pause in the federal carbon tax is something that was just completely unexpected. So more often we’re starting to see political changes, shifts in power are incorporating or bringing along some sizable shifts that are just completely unexpected.”

As for diesel fuel, seeding is well underway around Saskatchewan and with that it means more tractors burning diesel around the province.

“We definitely do see more diesel consumption this time of year. We are seeing some challenges with diesel down in the States just because refineries are also doing maintenance. But generally speaking, as these crops get put into the ground, we’ll probably start to see diesel consumption easing and then prices for diesel will likely ease through the course of the summer alongside gasoline as long as there are no additional new wild cards.”

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nick.nielsen@pattisonmedia.com