Big Island Fuel Price Drops Taper

Fuel prices on the Big Island continue to drop this week, a trend that has held for the entire month of September. Despite the continued decrease in gas prices, the weekly gap of cost differences has slowed.

Big Island Now has continued its weekly watch over Big Island fuel prices using AAA’s Fuel Gauge Report and Gas Buddy data.

Hilo’s average gas prices at every grade on Tuesday were once again down, compared to previous weeks. Regular fuel prices in Hilo were an average of $2.82 on Tuesday, a three-cent decrease from the average one week ago. Mid-grade fuel also saw a two-cent drop in average to $2.93 this week, three cents less than Monday’s average, which rose one cent higher than last week’s price. Premium fuel costs saw an overall average change of three cents to $3.05.

Analysis of AAA’s report shows that despite the drastic slow down in fuel price average drop, prices in Hilo remain down from what they were one month ago. Regular fuel in Hilo has dropped by 28 cents, while mid-grade has dropped by 30 cents and premium fuel has decreased by 29 cents in average over the past month.

All grade levels of fuel in Hilo remain over a dollar less in average price, compared to the same time in 2014. Regular fuel was $1.24 more per gallon during the same time period in September 2014. Mid-grade gasoline is an average of $1.27 less than last year, and premium fuel now costs $1.21 less on average.

In addition to Hilo’s slowly declining numbers, Kailua-Kona has seen similar trends with price drops of only one and two cents, respecively.

Big Island Now’s calculation of Gas Buddy data from Kailua-Kona shows that regular fuel was an average of $3.09 on Tuesday, compared to $3.10 recorded last week, a drop of only one cent in the past week but a 12-cent decrease over the past two weeks. Mid-grade gasoline was $3.20 on average, a one cent drop over the past week. Premium fuel also saw a similar comparison, costing an average of $3.23 Tuesday, a drop of 2 cents.

In Honolulu, the average price of regular fuel cost 10 cents less than Hilo’s average and was 36 cents lower than Kona’s average regular fuel price. Residents on Oahu are paying an average of $2.72 for regular fuel, a decrease of four cents from last week and a total of 24 cents less in the past month.

Diesel buyers in Hilo were paying an average of $4.18 on Tuesday, one penny higher than what was reported for the previous three weeks. Honolulu diesel buyers are paying $4.47, the same average as one week ago.

Club member-only prices, such as Costco and HFN, are excluded from this analysis and its averages.