High gasoline prices are nothing new to Hawai‘i residents and visitors. But the rest of the nation is quickly catching up. One industry specialist said the day when regular unleaded gasoline in Hawai‘i tops $3 a gallon may be coming
High gasoline prices are nothing new to Hawai‘i residents and visitors. But the rest of the nation is quickly catching up.
One industry specialist said the day when regular unleaded gasoline in Hawai‘i tops $3 a gallon may be coming soon.
“Hawai‘i is typically higher than Mainland gas stations. With crude-oil prices on the rise, I wouldn’t be surprised to see gas prices surpass $3 per gallon on average before summer is over,” said Jason Toews, spokesman for GasBuddy Organization, an online service that allows consumers to share information about low-priced fuel while providing real-time gas prices by location, Toews said.
While national prices, except for California, are not as high as Hawai‘i, they have spiked to recorded highs, according to two gas-price surveys.
According to sources with the American Automobile Association (AAA), the national average for unleaded regular gasoline was $2.291 gallon. That broke the April 11 record of $2.276, and was up 5.7 cents overnight, the biggest daily jump since AAA’s daily price survey began in 2000, according to an AAA spokesperson and a July 12 report in USA Today.
Officials in the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a record average $2.32, up 10 cents from last week and the second-biggest gain since the weekly EIA survey began in August, 1990.
Jeff Spring, spokesman for AAA Hawaii, said the market was too volatile to say whether prices on Kaua‘i or any other island would be hitting the $3-per-gallon-mark soon, but he did say Kaua‘i gas prices run a bit higher than the other islands.
Spring said he did not know the exact reason for this.
Spring said that, as far as he knew, both Malibu and Long Beach, Calif., had topped the $3 mark, with Long Beach charging a whopping $3.27 per gallon recently, before dropping back down to earth.
Spring said he had no idea why the gas price would be listed so high, only to fall again, but said it is indicative of the larger swing in price ranges inherent to California rather than Hawai‘i, where prices are high but tend not to vary to such a degree.
As of Wednesday, according to Spring, the average price of unleaded regular gas statewide was $2.59, compared to $2.34 on the same date last year. The highest-grade gasoline (premium) at a local Shell station on Kuhio Highway Wednesday in Lihu‘e was $2.99 per gallon.
Spring said the key factors impacting the price of gas are the price of sweet crude oil, which as of Wednesday was $60.80 a barrel, and the number of refineries. He said Hawai‘i had two refineries that he knew of, and California, for its immense population, had only 13, down from 26 just 10 years ago.
Gas is made from oil. At about $60 a barrel, or $1.43 a gallon, oil accounts for half the price of gasoline, according to EIA sources and USA Today, implying gasoline at $2.86.
According to Hawaii Gas Prices.com, 10 of the 12 highest gas prices statewide were on Kaua‘i, although the dubious distinction of single-highest cost at the pump went to Maui, which boasted a price of $2.86 per gallon at a Chevron Station in Pukalani. The highest price recorded on Kaua‘i over the past 72 hours was $2.81 at the Chevron in Princeville on Kuhio Highway.
The lowest in Kaua‘i, was $2.67 a gallon at a Shell station in Puhi. AAA Hawaii monitors pumps in Hilo, Wailuku and Honolulu. As a comparison, Spring said Hilo, with an average price of $2.59 a gallon, was about the same as Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, Calif., which were at $2.56 and $2.65, respectively. He said that, earlier this year, the price of gas on O‘ahu was actually lower than in some parts of California. Spring said the average price in Wailuku, according to most recent data, was $2.79 a gallon for unleaded regular gasoline.
He said that, in certain Mainland cities, Costco was offering lower-priced gas. The Costco planned for Kukui Grove Village West includes a gas-station component, and it is likely to offer lower pump prices.
Spring said the recent Hurricane Dennis, which ushered in the beginning of what looks like a long Atlantic hurricane season, also will effect gas prices as far west as Hawai‘i.
“It disrupts the production in the Gulf (of Mexico) states, and the market reacts to that, and when the market reacts, we get caught up in it,” he said. “It just costs a lot to bring it here.”
Spring said gasoline inventory was up from last year, but more production was needed. He said that, nationally, refineries were at 93- to 98-percent capacity.
- Andy Gross, business editor, 245-3681 (ext. 251) or agross@pulitzer.net.
