Experts predict gas prices nationwide will climb to three-year highs in 2017, an upward trend island drivers may have already begun to notice.
A gallon of unleaded regular fuel averaged $3.02 in Hilo Thursday, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge report. That’s up from $2.85 a month ago and $2.53 a year ago. The statewide average was $3.06 Thursday, up from $2.63 last year and notably higher than the $2.33 average Americans paid nationally.
The Fuel Gauge report doesn’t track West Hawaii prices, but information from GasBuddy.com showed prices on the leeward side ranging between $3.15 to $3.19 per gallon on Thursday.
In East Hawaii, some drivers are already feeling the pinch.
“It’s just money off the top,” Pachy Duff, owner of the Hilo taxi company Pachy Taxi said Thursday. “It definitely deducts from us, and we put in long hours to make it here in Hilo. It’s going to the gas station and instead of paying $40, it comes to $50 or even $60. So it doesn’t take that much (to impact fuel costs).”
Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst at GasBuddy, said prices nationally began to rise in November, shortly after OPEC announced plans to cut oil production. The organization — comprised of 13 oil-producing countries — grew “tired of selling oil at lower prices,” DeHaan said, and decided to limit supply, thus spurring price increases.
Crude oil was selling for about $52 per barrel Thursday, more than double a year ago, DeHaan said.
“Prices have really been climbing since that decision,” DeHaan said. “As soon as that decision was made, definitely prices in Hawaii started to jump right around that same time.”
By spring or summer, analysts predict gas costs nationally will reach their highest yearly averages since 2014. In Hawaii, that could mean per-gallon prices hovering around $3.50, DeHaan said.
“Prices will have their yearly ups and downs. We’re kind of in a low point. But they will certainly increase as we progress toward the summer,” he said.
The Fuel Gauge report showed diesel prices averaging $4.12 in Hilo on Thursday, up from $4.10 a month ago and down from $4.13 last year. DeHaan said diesel prices don’t fluctuate as much in Hawaii due to lower consumption than other parts of the country.
Email Kirsten Johnson at kjohnson@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
