Those two towns do not have any direct highway access to major cities,
which makes transport costs prohibitively high.  Ever try to deliver
gasoline by dog sled?

I've been to alaska, though not out in the boonies of alaska.  I've found
their gas prices are about the same as you'll find in any of the lower 48.
In fact, NY and CA prices might be a tad higher than Alaska.  EVERYTHING
else in Alaska is outrageously expensive.  Roughly 50% higher than the same
identical item sold in any of the lower 48 states.  -Dave

...

You folks are just *damaging* my Bogo Bullshit meter!

Alaska refines virtually all of the petroleum products used
here, with the exception that the military does import a
relatively small amount of refined product just to have "supply
diversity" (which is a joke anyway).

There are  commercial refineries in Alaska producing gasoline.
One North Pole just south of Fairbanks and one at Nikiski on the
Kenai Peninsula.

The North Pole refinery is unique among US refineries in having
the unusual situation of not requiring any sort of local
petro-chemical industry or special shipping arrangements for
disposal of byproducts.  It is located a few miles from the
Trans Alaska Pipeline at Eielson AFB, and has a pipeline
connecting it to the Eielson tank farm.

Crude is shipped from Eielson, while refined petroleum products
(primarily jet fuel for KC-135 refueling tankers at Eielson AFB)
are shipped back to Eielson.  But unlike every other refinery in
the US, these refineries also ship the byproducts right back
too!  The waste is injected into the crude headed south, for other
refineries to dispose of.

The locations mentioned, Aniak and Nome, (I lived in Aniak,
located on the Kuskokwim River in the 60's and 70's) are
supplied via ocean going barges.  Aniak, however, is a little
different than Nome because of it's river location.

Some ocean going barges go directly up the Kuskokwim.  Generally
they pick up a river pilot at Lower Kalskag, about 35 miles
down river from Aniak because the last 20 miles or so before
Aniak is an ocean pilot's nightmare...  It looks easy on paper
and the boss sometimes insists, with the inevitable result that
a barge gets stuck.  As a young fellow I once sat on the south
bank of the Kuskokwim with a couple old farts (who happened to
be the river pilots the barge outfit thought were too
expensive), watching them labor for 5 days to get a barge off
the gravel bar on the opposite side of the river.  We all agreed
that it shouldn't have taken more than three hours to get it
off; though no river pilot would have gotten stuck there to
begin with.

But most fuel to Aniak is actually supplied by shallow draft
river barges that load in Bethel.  Bethel is approximately 100
river miles from the ocean, and Aniak is another 155 or so miles
up the river.  (Any ocean vessel can make it to Bethel, but on
occasions no more than a 5 foot draft can get to Aniak.)

Nome of course is directly on the Bering Sea coast.

Crowley Marine typically loads barges at Nikiski in July and
proceeds to make various ports of call all along the Bering Sea
coast (with connecting barges that travel up major rivers),
while other barges supply the Northwest Arctic Borough ( the
Kotzebue area) and another group proceeds to various Arctic
Ocean villages of the North Slope Borough.

The price of *all* of the products (which means that what I pay
for gas all winter and next summer is fixed at this point) is
based on the price paid in July when the barge is loaded from
the Nikiski refinery plus transportation charges accessed by the
mile.  Hence the prices at Aniak and Nome are less than the
price in Point Hope, which is less than we pay here in Barrow,
which is less than they pay at Kaktovik.

On the other hand, at Prudhoe Bay there are a number of
privately owned refineries; hence the oil companies are not
paying Crowley Marine to supply gasoline (and virtually all
vehicles at Prudhoe are diesel...).