A month after a massive blaze forced the shutdown of Imperial Oil's Nanticoke refinery and caused gas shortages and price hikes across the GTA, the facility is fully operational once again.

There was some relief at the pumps Friday morning, as prices hovered around the dollar-a-litre mark, a few cents down from where they had been. It's still much higher than what motorists were paying before the blaze - in the mid-80-cent range.

It will likely be several days before Esso stations around the GTA are fully restocked.

Shell and Petro-Canada stations were also affected by the shortage, forced to put up signs saying they were out of fuel. That meant many drivers were forced to shop around for gas, and when they did find a station to fuel up, they were paying through the nose.

A strike by CN Rail employees also contributed to the situation because other fuel supplies couldn't be transported into the province.

The strike has since ended, and now that the supply is returning to what it was before the fire, prices could go lower still.

However, though the price of crude oil has fallen to below US$60 a barrel, decreased gasoline stocks could keep the cost of a fill-up high. According to reports gasoline prices in 2007 have increased at a higher rate than they have in previous years.

Toronto residents may think they have it bad, but prices are even steeper in other parts of Canada. In Montreal, for example, residents are paying $1.08 a litre.