For the fourth time in a week, gas prices in the Metro Vancouver area have broken all-time record highs.

Drivers visiting the pumps on Sunday were greeted with prices exceeding 160 cents per litre in some places-- more than a cent higher than the previous record high, which had been set only days prior on Wednesday.

The rise follows a period of escalation which began in March, when a gas price record that had been in place since June 2014 was broken by stations in Vancouver and White Rock. The trend continued when prices hit 157.9 cents per litre this past Monday.

Dan McTeague, an analyst with GasBuddy.com, told CTV News Channel Sunday that other areas along the West Coast are also feeling the pressure at the pumps, but lower fuel taxes have given them a bit of a break compared to Vancouver.

“(Vancouver) is by far and away the most expensive jurisdiction anywhere in North America and it looks like it’s going to continue to be that for quite some time,” he said.

While gas prices are high across Canada at the moment, the price in Vancouver is significantly higher than the current national average of 133.4 cents per litre and is now the 13th highest price in the world, McTeague said.

The prices have gotten so bad in lower mainland British Columbia that many Canadians are lining up at the U.S. border to save as much as $50 per tank by purchasing American fuel, McTeague said.

“(It’s an) absolute incredible price bulge that we haven’t seen anywhere in North America at any point in our history,” he said.

The rise in prices is the result of temporary refinery closures and the shutdown of the Olympic pipeline in Washington State, as well as a general increase in the price of crude oil.

McTeague predicts that these increases could just be a sign of things to come if construction of the Trans Mountain pipeline continues to stall.

“We need that pipeline built,” he said. “The sooner it can be built, the more it can bring gasoline in, drive Canadian values up and up and in turn will lead to lower and lower prices at the pumps for everybody.”

With files from CTV Vancouver