While motorists statewide are enjoying six-year lows in gas prices, diesel drivers haven’t been so lucky. ADVERTISING While motorists statewide are enjoying six-year lows in gas prices, diesel drivers haven’t been so lucky. On Friday, the average price for a
While motorists statewide are enjoying six-year lows in gas prices, diesel drivers haven’t been so lucky.
On Friday, the average price for a gallon of diesel in Hawaii was $4.37, according to GasBuddy.com, with prices ranging $3.89 to $4.19 in Hilo. Statewide, that’s down only slightly from $4.54 a year ago and up slightly from $4.25 five years ago.
Compare that to gas prices — which averaged $2.65 per gallon statewide on Friday, down from $3.17 a year ago and $3.69 five years ago. In Hilo, gas prices ranged $2.33 to $2.52 per gallon on Friday.
“It’s frustrating; I chose to drive diesel because it gets way better mileage,” said Jordan Rosado, who said he spends about $140 to fill up his diesel truck. “But it ends up being around $50 more for me to fill up my tank than it is with gas.”
And pricey diesel isn’t the theme nationwide: In fact, Americans as a whole are seeing five-year lows in diesel prices, which averaged $2.06 per gallon on Friday, down from $2.79 a year ago and $3.43 five years ago.
“Personally, I think diesel prices should be lower than gas prices,” said James Mattos, owner of Keaau-based Mattos Towing. “It’s a more raw form of fuel, and I think it could be cheaper than gas which takes more energy and money to refine.”
“I spend about $100 to $110 to fill up my truck,” he added. “If prices were what they should be, I’d probably be spending $60 to fill up.”
Experts say the state’s higher prices largely stem from production: Hawaii is home to two oil refineries which do not produce enough diesel to meet on-road demand, according to GasBuddy Senior Petroleum Analyst Will Speer. As a result, the state regularly imports diesel from Canada. Typically, a little more than 50 percent of the state’s on-road diesel is imported, Speer said.
By contrast, both refineries are “very self-sustainable” when it comes to gasoline production and import “pretty close to zero” gas, Speer said.
“There’s not a lot of gasoline imported for Hawaii unless the refineries are having downtime for maintenance or something like that,” he said. “But for diesel, it’s really a steady stream of imports.”
Other factors Speer said could contribute to high diesel prices include the lack of competition in Hawaii, coupled with higher taxes. Diesel drivers in Hawaii pay around 63.95 cents per gallon in state and federal taxes, slightly higher than the 60.75 cents per gallon taxed for gas.
There’s still hope for relief — at least some. Crude oil prices dipped below $30 per barrel this week, and some experts project prices to drop even lower, around $20 per barrel, in the future.
“Diesel prices still won’t be impacted as much as gasoline,” Speer said. “But I think if oil gets down to $20 (per barrel), further relief will be seen in the Hawaii gasoline market.”
