Hawai'i's wholesale gasoline cap should decline next week, though the drop will be the smallest in seven weeks.

Advertiser calculations show the gasoline price ceiling may be cut just under 2 cents. The state Public Utilities Commission is scheduled to announce today a new cap price that takes effect Monday.

"I'm happy to see it go down," said Waikele resident Wayne Midro, who frequently drives to appointments across O'ahu for his financial services job. "It was painful paying $3.50 a gallon."

Midro, 36, said he hasn't made up his mind whether Hawai'i's gas cap law, the only one in the nation, is working. It cost him $10 more to fill up his car when prices were at their highest in September.

The cap has declined during the past six weeks, including declines of 44 cents a gallon the week of Oct. 17 and 18 cents the week of Oct. 31.

Nationally, crude oil rose for a fourth day in New York on concern that colder weather may boost heating demand and curb a two-month drop in prices.

"Oil has been ready to head up again as soon as the weather cooled down," National Australia Bank economist Gerard Burg told Bloomberg News. "A big draw in anything, particularly heating oil, will just be another signal we're headed back up."

The wholesale price cap is computed using spot market prices in New York, the Gulf Coast and Los Angeles. Yesterday prices in New York and Los Angeles closed at the highest since Nov. 9; the highest since Nov. 10 on the Gulf Coast.

Hawai'i's gas cap law regulates only wholesale prices. Service stations are free to set retail pump prices. Those generally have followed the cap cuts downward. Yesterday Costco and Lex Brodie's sold a gallon of regular for $2.46 a gallon on O'ahu.

The cap is designed to have Hawai'i's prices track with those on the Mainland. Proponents of the law enacted it saying local prices rarely declined as they did in other states, though increasing steadily.

More proposals surrounding the law are expected to be examined during the next legislative session. Critics have said the measure, which went into effect Sept. 1, adds to pricing volatility and may not have produced benefits for drivers.

Hawai'i's gasoline and diesel prices are the highest in the country. As of Monday night the average price of a gallon of regular was $2.73 in Hawai'i versus $2.20 nationally, according to the AAA road club.

The Advertiser uses oil market data from Bloomberg for its gas cap computations. The state uses figures supplied by Oil Price Information Service. The different data sources can result in a variation of a few cents.