Gas prices soared in parts of Canada Friday as Hurricane Ike threatened to damage oil refineries in the Gulf Coast.

Prices shot up about 13 cents in some cities across the country and Liberal MP Dan McTeague, a gas-price watcher, warned Friday evening that gas could go up again.

"I just news that the Colonial Pipeline that supplies most of north-eastern United States has just closed in Houston, Texas as a result of the hurricane," McTeague said on CTV's Mike Duffy Live. "Any minute now we might be getting another price increase."

According to McTeague's website, the price of regular gasoline will rise 1.6 cents in the GTA and Ottawa over the weekend and 4.4 cents in Montreal.

Earlier Friday in southern Ontario, the price of gas shot up by about 13 cents after midnight to more than $1.36 a litre. Gas stations in Toronto ran out of fuel as customers lined up before the price hike.

It was the same situation across the country. According to GasBuddy.com, which monitors North American fuel costs, the average price of gas in Canada was $1.33 on Friday.

Here are gas prices reported across the country on Friday afternoon according to GasBuddy.com:

• Prices in Ottawa were hovering around the $1.30 per-litre mark at many gas stations.
• Gas prices in Vancouver were about $1.39 a litre.
• Gas was selling in Montreal for about $1.37 a litre.
• Halifax prices were up to about $1.31 a litre.

GasBuddy.com co-founder Jason Toews told CTV Newset that oil producers "know they are going to have short supply" because of Ike and other storms that have hit the Gulf this summer.

"So what they do is raise our prices preemptively to try and reduce demand so they have enough supply on hand."

Toews said it's not only consumers who are hurting from high prices. Small independent gas station owners are also hurting.

Toews said big gas companies -- not station owners -- are raking in record profits. Independent owners, he said, are trying to keep their prices as low as possible to compete with their neighbours, so their profits have actually been shrinking.

Peter Boag, president of the Canadian Petroleum Products Institute, told CTV Newsnet that the spike in gas prices is due primarily to the bad weather in the Gulf Coast.

"The price hikes we're seeing and the price movements we're seeing over the short period of time are due to (the) supply disruption caused by the impending arrival of Hurricane Ike," he said.

Boag said that oil industry corporations are not engaging in price gouging.

"It's just not the case," he said flatly, noting that they operate in a highly competitive environment.

McTeague said that the problem is bigger than the threat of Ike.

"The price increase at the world market for gasoline went up 16 cents a gallon (Friday)," McTeague told CTV's Canada AM Friday. "We've been paying ... something in the order of 48 cents a gallon.

"Clearly, there's something wrong with the state of competition in the gasoline industry in Canada,"

McTeague said refineries have lowered production as the price of oil has declined in the past seven weeks.

He said the industry has "decided that it doesn't want to produce."

"They've actually created a scarcity situation just in advance of the next stage of increases as we head into the colder season -- not just for diesel, not just for gasoline, but for home heating fuel," said McTeague.

Don't panic - yet

A University of Calgary professor says there's no reason for consumers to panic unless hurricane Ike completely cripples the Texas refining industry.

If the refineries don't take a hit, they could be back up to normal production in a few weeks.

"Unless there's permanent damage to the refineries, the people shouldn't panic in the short run," Bob Schulz from the Calgary university's Haskayne School of Business told The Canadian Press.

"I see this as a short-term up and then a gradual down."

The price of crude oil on the market actually slipped for a short time Friday.

The price of oil on the futures market briefly dropped below the psychologically significant mark of US$100 a barrel Friday, for the first time since April 2 of this year.

Light sweet crude oil delivery for October closed up US$0.31 to $101.18 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Friday.

With files from The Canadian Press