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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Gas price cap expected to drop by 2¢ next week

Advertiser Staff

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Hawai'i's wholesale gasoline price will likely fall slightly next week, following two weeks of increases.

Advertiser calculations show the state may lower the wholesale gas cap by about 2 cents next Monday. The state Public Utilities Commission tomorrow will announce a new price cap to take effect next week.

The decrease follows a 6.5-cent increase in the gas cap this week and a 7-cent increase last week. The limit is only on wholesale prices but retail gasoline prices generally follow the wholesale cap.

The state began capping wholesale gas prices Sept. 1 to bring them more in line with prices on the Mainland. As of Sunday night the statewide average for regular gasoline was $2.662, about 45 cents more than the national average, according to the American Automobile Association.

The state's gasoline cap is computed using wholesale prices during a five-day period in New York, the Gulf Coast and Los Angeles.

The Advertiser's preliminary calculation is based on four-days of market data from those markets as reported by Bloomberg and may be different by a few cents from the state's projections, which uses prices supplied by the Oil Price Information Service.