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Don't say you weren't warned. On Tuesday, CityNews.ca suggested that gas prices could rise by close to a nickel overnight due to a jump in oil prices.

That turned out to be the case a day later as gas marquees across the city were reading prices of $1.09 a litre on average for regular fuel. It's a four-cent-per-litre jump over prices earlier in the week.

Oil industry watchdog and Liberal MP Dan McTeague, who's almost always accurate in predicting price hikes at the pump, advised that it would cost more to fill up on account of the increase in the cost of oil. The barrel price closed Tuesday at $100.01, the first ever close over $100.

Traders blamed the high price on global uncertainty and an explosion at a Texas refinery.

"Speculators have obviously abandoned traditional areas of investment like banking, currencies, and they've decided that oil and gas is the new gold standard," McTeague said. "I think it's unfortunate these prices are passed on instantaneously."

The rising price of a fill-up comes a year after a refinery fire at Esso's Nanticoke facility caused some stations in Ontario to run out of gas and others to begin rationing fill-ups. However prices during that crisis never reached what they have this week.

It's been a year since drivers paid this much to gas their cars - on last year's May 24 long weekend a litre of gas cost $1.095.

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