Posted on 08/25/2026 10:12:29 AM PDT by PROCON
Glenda Douglas of Shungnak, in the Northwest Arctic Borough, shared this photo on social media of a gasoline purchase she made on Friday, Aug. 21, 2026. (Glenda Douglas photo)
It’s not a typo. The price of a gallon of gasoline in the northwest Alaska village of Shungnak was $26.82 on Friday, local residents and regional officials said, likely giving the community the dubious honor of having the most expensive gasoline in the United States.
“It is very much real,” said Glenda Douglas, who manages the store in Shungnak and posted a picture of the price on Facebook.
Across the United States, the average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline was $4.10 on Thursday.
Shungnak is about 280 river miles east of Kotzebue, up the Kobuk River, or 150 miles as the airplane flies. Air travel is the only reliable, year-round form of transportation.
In summer, the river is usually navigable by boat. In winter, residents travel by snowmachine. Last fall and for parts of this summer, water levels on the Kobuk were low enough to interrupt barge traffic, which contributed to the high price of gasoline.
“We sell groceries, diesel and gas,” Douglas said via Facebook message. “We had to get gas flown in twice this summer since (the) barge isn’t able to make it this way because the river water levels (are) too low. Just yesterday, the price was 13.99, but now it is 26.82.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonstatestandard.com ...
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Alaskan Woman “Honey get me something really expensive for my birthday this year”
Man haNDS her a gallon of gasoline
Well you have to get it there somehow.
With “ranked choice” voting, it will only get worse...
Likely worth every penny in that location.
Looks like a long, looooooong way from Anchorage.
I don’t see the problem that’s what the Democrats want everywhere in America. If you do away with drilling and refining and fracking and everything else they want to stop this is the result.
Honestly, not just in that location.
A gallon of gas gets me 20 miles. That's worth $20 to me.
It's only due to competition that I'm paying much less than the gas is worth to me.
That’s bullcrap. Low river water levels forced the community to fly in emergency fuel.
Alaska needs to build a refinery.
This story is interesting as trivia, or as a piece of jesus toast, but it doesn’t have anything to do with anything about gasoline prices in America or federal policy or world events, or anything useful to the general public.
How much is whale blubber?
What they need....is a pipeline....
$3.50 a gallon here ..
When you choose to live in boondocks you can’t expect benefits of civilization. Simple as that.
“With “ranked choice” voting, it will only get worse...”
This is one they can’t really blame on the politicians. The politicians in Alaska do not own a high gas tax like in the lower 48. Factually, the state has the lowest tax on gaosline in the US. The price is high because of remote shipping costs, limited local refining, and logistical expenses required to transport fuel across vast distances.
I was stationed at Galena in the mid 80’s but we had the advantage of the Yukon River which was better adapted to barge travel than the Kobuck River even though the travel was longer from the ocean to the destination. And winter effects them longer than in many cities so the river becomes inaccessable with freeze over sooner and storage can be limited. Fuel oil to run their generators and drinking wter at certain times of the year are more important than auto gas. The current population flexes from 238 to 245 people. And only a few families stay for the winter.
wy69
Drill baby, drill. In your backyard.
What kind of mileage do their snowmobiles get, anyway?
The fuel is barged up from Wa state. We had a refinery at North Pole that was closed owing to solvent spills. The workers complained. The workers were the ones that let the solvent spill. No sorrow from me.
From the Keeper of ALL knowledge on Earth
Kenai Refinery (Nikiski)Owned and operated by Marathon Petroleum Corporation, this is the state’s largest active refinery. Located on the Cook Inlet (60 miles southwest of Anchorage), it processes roughly 68,000 to 72,000 barrels of crude oil per day, producing gasoline, diesel, and a significant portion of the region’s jet fuel.
Valdez Refinery Operated by Petro Star Inc. (a subsidiary of Arctic Slope Regional Corporation), this facility draws from the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System to produce ultra-low sulfur diesel and marine fuels for coastal and oil-field operations.
North Pole Refinery Also operated in part by Petro Star (producing heating oil and jet fuel for interior markets), though a large portion of the historic North Pole facility shut down its primary refining units in **2014** and now functions primarily as a storage and distribution terminal managed under Marathon
Carter did that......
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