Kauai Gas Prices Hit $5.80 Per Gallon, Topping State Average

For a driver making the daily Kapaa-to-Lihue run, filling up now costs roughly $30 more per month than what mainland drivers are paying. Regular unleaded on Kauai hit $5.80 per gallon Saturday, according to AAA data, making Lihue the priciest fuel market in Hawaii and $1.74 per gallon above the national average of $4.06. A typical 20-mile round-trip commute burning about four gallons a week adds up fast at that spread.

The statewide average stood at $5.46, itself up more than a dollar from $4.39 a month ago. O'ahu averaged $5.35 in Honolulu, sitting 45 cents below Kauai's price. That gap reflects a structural reality: Kauai has no on-island refinery, far fewer competing stations than O'ahu, and receives all of its petroleum via inter-island barge. Retailers on Kauai have less margin to absorb cost surges before they reach the pump.

The underlying driver was geopolitical. U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 disrupted global energy supply chains and sent the OPEC Basket price per barrel up roughly 90 percent from late February. Hawaii imports no oil directly from the Middle East, but crude prices globally moved in tandem with the conflict, and statewide prices climbed more than a dollar per gallon in under a month.

A second wave is already building through the freight network. Matson Navigation Company, which carries approximately 70 percent of all goods entering Hawaii, announced a Fuel Related Surcharge increase taking effect April 12, citing the unprecedented oil price shock. Because virtually everything sold on Kauai, from grocery staples to farm inputs to construction materials, arrives on a Matson vessel, that surcharge flows directly into delivery rates and onto store shelves. Airlines have also raised fares in response to higher jet fuel costs, squeezing both residents and the visitors who keep much of the island's economy running.

Hawaii's all-time record for regular unleaded stood at $5.623, set on July 9, 2022. The statewide average at $5.46 has not yet matched it. Kauai, at $5.80, already has.