\n The average price US drivers pay for a gallon of gas hit $4 on Monday, as fighting between the United States and Iran intensified, further disrupting oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz.\n <\/p>\n
\n The average price is now just above $4 a gallon, according to the American Automobile Association, or AAA. Gas first crossed the $4 mark<\/a>, a psychologically important threshold, on March 31, a month into the conflict.\n <\/p>\n \n Prices jumped from $2.98 a gallon on average before the war, as the conflict cut off most oil flowing through the critical Strait of Hormuz.\n <\/p>\n \n In early May, gasoline prices rose to a four-year high of $4.56 before falling on hopes that negotiations between Iran and the United States would reopen the waterway and release oil tankers that had been trapped in the Persian Gulf.\n <\/p>\n \n The two countries signed a memorandum of understanding<\/a> on June 14 to halt hostilities, prompting gas to fall back below $4 <\/a>a few days later.\n <\/p>\n \n But prices at the pump began to climb again after Iran resumed attacks on ships<\/a> trying to exit the strait and after the US retaliated<\/a> and put a blockade on Iranian ports. The average price is up around 13 cents over the past week.\n <\/p>\n \n Gasoline prices rose alongside oil prices, with Brent crude briefly climbing above $90 a barrel for the first time since early June on Monday. Brent has risen roughly 16% over the past week. West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, is up around $12 a barrel this month.\n <\/p>\n \n High pump prices are a headache for President Donald Trump and the Republican Party ahead of midterm elections in November.\n <\/p>\n \n About half of America\u2019s states still have an average price below $4 a gallon, however. Indiana has the lowest average price at $3.35 a gallon, while California is the most expensive at $5.49. Washington state and Hawaii also have an average price above $5 a gallon, according to the AAA.\n <\/p>\n \n Gas prices are not expected to decline anytime soon, according to Tom Kloza, an independent oil analyst and advisor to Gulf Oil. The recent run-up in gasoline futures indicates prices will rise another 10 to 25 cents over the next week.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThat\u2019s baked in,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n \n The war with Iran and renewed closure of the strait aren\u2019t the only factors driving prices higher. There\u2019s also Ukraine\u2019s recent drone attacks<\/a> on Russian refineries, Kloza said.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cRussia has had to import gasoline, whereas they\u2019ve been a net seller for many, many years,\u201d he said. \u201cIt has raised fears in markets of a refined product shortage. And no matter how much gasoline we make here, it is a global market<\/a>.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n All of this comes amid peak driving season in the United States, where demand for gas is at a maximum, Kloza said. Stronger demand is expected to keep upward pressure on gas prices through Labor Day.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The average price US drivers pay for a gallon of gas hit $4 on Monday, as fighting between…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":813985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48],"class_list":["post-813984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=813984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}