Hawai'i's gasoline prices will continue to fall next week as the state's wholesale gasoline price cap gets trimmed by 3 cents a gallon.

The state Public Utilities Commission yesterday set the pre-tax cap for Nov. 14 to 20 at $1.852 for O'ahu as it cut the price limit for a fifth consecutive week. Retail prices aren't regulated by the law, but tend to follow the wholesale price reduction.

A new price cap is announced each Wednesday and takes effect the following Monday. The cut should result in regular gasoline prices falling at O'ahu's lowest-priced stations to about $2.60 a gallon, said Harvey Shapiro, who has come up with a formula for calculating the price.

Shapiro, a research economist for the Honolulu Board of Realtors, said the price includes about 12 cents for retail mark up.

"We suspect that prices could go even lower if the oil companies based their wholesale prices on their actual costs of doing business, which is information that they have not been willing to share with us," said Rep. Marcus Oshiro, (D-39th Wahiawa) in a statement.

Oshiro, one of the proponents of the law that went into effect on Sept. 1, said the Legislature will be calling for greater transparency from the oil industry.

The cap regulates how much wholesalers can charge for gasoline and is based on five days of wholesale prices in New York, the Gulf Coast and Los Angeles.

Hawai'i's gasoline prices remain the highest in the nation, according to the American Automobile Association. As of Tuesday night the average price for a gallon of regular in the state was $2.819, or 16.8 percent higher than a year earlier.

The national average was $2.363, or 18.9 percent higher.

The reduction in the cap will bring the cumulative decline in the price ceiling to a little more than 80 cents since Oct. 16.

The state set Neighbor Island caps at: