text: I wasn't sure about adding this. But it comes under the title "something funny that requires further investigation." I looked into this price differential. And the appropriate comparison should be with WTC, Southeast Asia oil and What HECO pays for oil. When I compared the price differential between the benchmark price West Texas Crude and SE Asian crude there was no noticeable effect on prices. Japan does not have to buy crude from SE Asia. It's actually easier to transport it from the West Coast of Canada, but it can also come from lots of other places, like Russia. So the real question is why does Hawaiian electric pay so much more for refined oil from local refineries. When I was working on the merger I formally requested the contract but was ignored. I suspect, from the behavior of the HECO price series, that these contracts contain some formula that is a multiple of the crude price. Which makes me all the more suspicious of governor Ige's decision to abandon LNG.