Heating fuel averages $7.97 in surveyed Alaska communities, up 22.8%

Heating fuel in surveyed Alaska communities averaged $7.97 a gallon this summer, up 22.8 percent from $6.49 last winter. Gasoline rose 13.8 percent, to $7.56 from $6.64.

The state Division of Community and Regional Affairs released the figures Friday in its third-quarter highlights. The division surveys 100 communities twice a year. The prices come from point-in-time reports by local vendors, community contacts and major retailers in July and August, published in the Alaska Fuel Price Report: Summer 2026.

Western Alaska communities paid the most: gasoline averaged $8.70 a gallon and heating fuel averaged $9.

Some western communities received fuel deliveries late, so vendors were still selling last year's inventory at old prices. Other city or Tribal-owned vendors were waiting on council resolutions to set new rates. Many remote communities depend on seasonal marine deliveries, and the Alaska Municipal League says shipping costs and Bering Strait ice can delay those shipments by weeks.

The division said the full effects in western Alaska may not show up in its figures until later this year.