It’s quite a bit cheaper to fill the gas tank today with the 10-cent per litre drop in gas thanks to the temporary elimination of the federal excise tax. Since the HST applies to the 10 cents, the actual reduction is around 11.5 cents.

The drop in diesel is less dramatic – about 4.5 cents.

The excise tax does not apply to heating fuels, so the Public Utilities Board will adjust those prices at midnight tonight.

Meanwhile, gas guru Dan McTeague says the price pressures are going to stay with us for quite some time – well into the summer.

Kuwait is saying that it will take two to three years to rebuild the world’s largest natural gas processing plant.

“And even then, it will take 6-8 weeks for the large vessels that carry a million or two million barrels of oil to reach their destination,” says McTeague.

He says countries like Russia and the United States and, to a lesser extent, Canada, will be fine in terms of security of supply, but Europe and Asia are hurting.