Fuel prices in Curacao

Fuel Prices in Curacao: What Drivers Actually Pay at the Pump

Filling up on Curacao costs about $1.546 per liter for gasoline as of late June 2026, which works out to roughly $5.85 per US gallon. In the local currency, that is around 2.77 ANG per liter. Diesel is noticeably cheaper at about $1.394 per liter. Those figures place Curacao right around the global midpoint — the worldwide average sits near $1.484 per liter, and Curacao ranks 95th out of 170 countries surveyed, just a hair above average.

Why an oil-producing island still pays mid-range prices

Curacao has a long history with crude oil. The island hosted one of the Caribbean's largest refineries at Bullenbaai and Emmastad for nearly a century, processing Venezuelan crude for export. But hosting a refinery is not the same as being a crude exporter, and processing volumes collapsed after the Isla refinery wound down its long-running lease arrangement. Today the island imports the bulk of the refined product it burns, so its pump prices track international fuel markets far more than any notion of "local oil."

The Curacao guilder (ANG) is pegged to the US dollar at a fixed rate, which removes one of the wild cards that hammers drivers elsewhere. In places with floating, weakening currencies — think Mongolia — a sliding exchange rate can inflate fuel costs even when the global oil price is flat. Curacao's peg means that when you see a price move here, it almost always reflects the real cost of imported product plus the government's regulated margin, not currency turbulence.

Regulated prices, taxes, and small-market premiums

Like many island economies, Curacao sets maximum fuel prices through government regulation rather than leaving them to a free-for-all at the pump. The retail price bundles the landed cost of imported fuel, distribution and storage margins, and excise and sales taxes (OB). Because the island is small and everything arrives by tanker, logistics and storage add a structural premium that larger mainland markets simply do not carry. That is the core reason a Caribbean island sits near the world average rather than far below it, despite cheap regional crude nearby.

It is worth comparing Curacao with its neighbors. The nearby Dominican Republic and the smaller island of Dominica face the same import-dependent reality, and their prices reflect a similar mix of shipping costs and local taxes. You can scan the full picture on our world fuel prices table to see how Caribbean pumps stack up globally.

The price trend: where Curacao has been

Looking back over the period from January 2021 to June 2026, the average gasoline price on Curacao was about $1.251 per liter. The cheapest point came right at the start of that window — $1.039 per liter on 25 January 2021 — during the depths of the pandemic demand slump. The peak followed the global energy shock, hitting $1.654 per liter on 1 August 2022 as crude and refined-product prices spiked worldwide.

Today's $1.546 sits well above the multi-year average but comfortably below that 2022 high. The takeaway: Curacao's regulated pricing smooths out some volatility, but the island still rides the same global swings everyone else does — just buffered by its dollar peg. That stability contrasts with markets like North Macedonia, where excise-tax tweaks and currency moves drive sharper local shifts.

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