Hawaiʻi · The farthest market — everything arrives by sea · PADD 5
Crude in at one buoy, through the one Oʻahu refinery, by barge to every island — a third becomes jet fuel, and oil still keeps the lights on. All of it 2,400 miles from the mainland: the most isolated major population center on Earth.
2022fiscal year
Deaths · Hawaiʻi
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CDC monthly
1,742 in all · peak 251 in SEP 2021
Power sold · by sector
against the same month of 2019
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Brent crude · refinery's benchmark
$— /bbl
annual average
pause to scrub the 12‑month curve
Hydro · EIA SEDS · statewide
— GWh
1960–2024
hover the curve to read a year
2022fiscal year
There is no pipeline or rail backstop the way the mainland has — the entire state’s crude enters through one buoy 1.5 miles offshore, and 65% of the electricity is still made by burning oil.
Framing draws on Julian Spector’s reporting on Hawaiʻi’s oil dependence for Canary Media.
Imported crude
Refined product — Oʻahu pipeline
Refined product — inter‑island barge (Jones Act)
Military fuel — DLA import to JBPHH
Renewable fuels (SAF / RD)
Ocean tanker — crude & product from the mainland
Terminal — island harbor (holds & distributes)
Refinery (distillation towers) — Kapolei
Flow color = fuel; node icon color = destination (jet, power, bunker, island…)
Utility-scale solar — bubble area = GWh generated that year
PV array — a working utility plant on that island
Rooftop cluster — size scales to that island’s real system count
Dashed ring + 0 — no utility solar on that island yet
Caption under each bubble = share of that island’s own utility (KIUC / HECO / MECO / HELCO). Rooftop is capacity, never added to the GWh.
Utility wind — bubble area = GWh generated that year
Turbine turning — a farm generating that year, drawn at its real site
Turbine dark, blades stopped — retired (Hawi after 2020)
A turbine appears the year its farm first generated — nothing is drawn before its time
CAPACITY tab = GWh ÷ (nameplate MW × 8,760); both figures real EIA
Run-of-river hydro — bubble area = GWh generated that year
Penstock, runner, tailrace — a powerhouse, not a dam
Amber value · “held” — EIA reported no record; previous year carried, never zeroed
Dashed ring + 0 — stopped, or never had hydro (Oʻahu never did)
No reservoirs in Hawaiʻi — these take what the mountain sends, which is why the line is jagged
SHARE tab is against each island’s own grid, not the state — 13% of Kauaʻi, 1% of the state
Geothermal — bubble area = GWh generated that year
Puna (PGV) — Ormat, 38 MW, flash + binary — the state’s only geothermal plant
Dashed ring + 0 — offline 2019–20, after the Kīlauea eruption overran it
Sited on the active East Rift Zone — the volcano that powers it is the one that shut it down
Reading the map. Ribbon width & particle density scale with annual volume (√ scaling, so small islands stay visible). Solid ribbons are Oʻahu pipelines; dashed ribbons are inter‑island barges. Hover any node for its fuel mix; toggle Vulnerability for supply‑fragility rings. Data status. Statewide demand is anchored to EIA Form EIA‑782C Prime Supplier annual sales (thousand gal/day): Total Gasoline (series C100050151), Kerosene‑Type Jet Fuel (C500050151), and No. 2 Distillate (C200050151), 2000–2021. EIA‑782C was discontinued after 2021 (“Release Date: 6/1/2022; Next Release Date: TBD”), so 2022–25 extends from EIA SEDS Tables CT1/F2 (jet 15,580 → 16,724 thousand bbl, 2022→2024P) and the DBEDT Data Book (Table 18.17). Withheld jet cells (2002–04, 2008–11) are filled on the SEDS shape but bracketed to the published series, avoiding SEDS’ 2005 naphtha‑jet reclassification and 2009–10 methodology breaks. The three series cover ≈73% of all‑products demand; power‑gen oil and other products ride that total. Island shares & fuel pies are calibrated to real ratios (statewide jet ≈36%, HNL ≈85–90% of state jet). Import source countries are era‑representative (HSEO Fuel Imports Dashboard / EIA): a 2010‑style Russia‑Indonesia‑Saudi crude slate before ~2016, shifting to the 2025 Argentina‑Libya‑Alaska‑Nigeria slate; imported product moves from a Japan/Korea split to ≈90% South Korea. Brent tracks real annual averages; monthly points are illustrative.
The island split is measured, not modeled. Hawaiʻi levies its liquid fuel tax by county, so the state publishes gallons actually taxed on each island — gasoline, highway and non‑highway diesel, aviation fuel, small‑boat fuel, LPG and other fuel. The four island volumes divide the statewide total by that measurement (Department of Taxation, Liquid Fuel Tax Base & Tax Collections, calendar year; Data Book table 17.16), with Kauaʻi as the exact residual so the four always sum to the state total. The shares move: Oʻahu ran 0.59 of state fuel in 2008 and 0.50 in 2023 while Maui County went 0.15 to 0.22. Measured years are 2006 and 2008–2023; 2007 is spanned from the years either side, CY2005 is excluded because its Honolulu aviation line changed basis (225.0 M gal against 108.0 M gal in 2006 with gasoline flat), and outside 2006–2023 the nearest measured year holds. One limit: this is the liquid fuel tax base — fuel sold and taxed — so it does not capture the residual fuel oil the island utilities burn for electricity, which is a large block here and which the per‑island fuel mix carries separately as powerfuel. Sources. Hawaiʻi State Department of Taxation, Liquid Fuel Tax Base & Tax Collections; State of Hawaiʻi Data Book table 17.16; EIA Form EIA‑782C, Prime Supplier Report (eia.gov/petroleum/marketing/prime); EIA State Energy Data System, Tables CT1 & F2 (Hawaii); Hawaiʻi State Energy Office / DBEDT, Energy Data & Trends and Data Book 18.17; Par Pacific filings; EIA Brent spot.