{"id":625855,"date":"2026-09-16T00:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T00:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/625855\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T00:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T00:22:09","slug":"houthi-escalation-in-the-middle-east-brings-new-pain-at-the-pump-for-americans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/625855\/","title":{"rendered":"Houthi escalation in the Middle East brings new pain at the pump for Americans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON (TNND)  \u2014 New pressure on Middle East oil routes is already putting an additional squeeze on American consumers, as fallout from the region&#8217;s escalating conflicts ripples into everyday costs.<\/p>\n<p><p>Iran-backed Houthi rebels have seized key parts of the Red Sea coast, forcing Saudi Arabia to shut down a critical East-West oil pipeline. (TNND)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Iran-backed Houthi rebels have seized key parts of the Red Sea coast, forcing Saudi Arabia to shut down a critical East-West oil pipeline. The disruption almost immediately sent oil prices to their highest levels since May.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve been in constant contact with the Emiratis, the Saudis, and others who are affected in the region, so it&#8217;s something the United States administration is very much on top of,&#8221; Vice President Vance said Monday. &#8220;We&#8217;ve also been engaged in direct conversations with the Houthis themselves, so we actually feel like we are on top of the situation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The average price of a gallon of gas in the U.S. has climbed 17 cents in the past week, reaching $4.32 on Monday. The impact is showing up on store shelves as well \u2014 Costco raised the price of its Kirkland brand motor oil to $58 for a five-quart, two-pack, up from $30 last year, and is now limiting customers to one box per week.<\/p>\n<p>The broader war with Iran, and continued limits on oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, remain unresolved. <a href=\"https:\/\/iranwarcost.watson.brown.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Brown University&#8217;s Iran War Energy Cost Tracker<\/a> estimates U.S. households have spent $815 more so far since the war began due to the rising cost of gasoline and diesel.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Obviously, gas prices are too high right now. Diesel prices are too high. There&#8217;s a very simple reason for it. It&#8217;s tied, of course, to the Strait of Hormuz,&#8221; House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said. &#8220;We have got to get commerce stabilized in the Strait of Hormuz, I believe. And I&#8217;ve been saying now for a couple of weeks, I believe we&#8217;re going to enter a new phase of that soon.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>With energy prices climbing, analysts are watching closely for China&#8217;s next move. Beijing slashed its oil imports when the war with Iran first began, a decision that helped keep global prices from climbing even further, aided by reserves exceeding 1 billion barrels. Now, China could reenter the market more aggressively, potentially pushing prices higher still.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Now what we see though in recent weeks is Chinese state-owned enterprises and some of the independent refining in China returning to the market with more of a vociferous appetite for crudes from all over the world \u2014 not just the Middle East, but Latin America and West Africa and other regions as well,&#8221; Clay Seigle, a nonresident scholar focused on energy security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told CNBC. <\/p>\n<p>Unlike China, the U.S. does not have a large cushion to fall back on. American oil reserves currently sit at 285 million barrels \u2014 their lowest level since 1982.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (TNND) \u2014 New pressure on Middle East oil routes is already putting an additional squeeze on American&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,113,61,60],"class_list":["post-625855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}