By Nicole Jao <\/p>\n
NEW YORK, July 20 (Reuters) – U.S. gasoline pump prices crossed the $4 a gallon mark on Monday as renewed hostilities \u200cbetween the U.S. and Iran further disrupt energy flows through the \u200cStrait of Hormuz, a critical route for global oil supplies. <\/p>\n
National average retail gasoline prices have \u200bclimbed more than 30% since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran at the end of February. The average pump price on Monday was $4.0030 a gallon, according to data from the American Automobile Association, or AAA. <\/p>\n
The $4 per gallon mark, a \u200cprice point of financial \u2060pain for many households, was last reached in late March, after Iran halted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Prices \u2060retreated below that threshold in June after the U.S. and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding to end the war. <\/p>\n
Before the Iran war about 20% of \u200bglobal \u200boil supplies flowed through the strait. <\/p>\n
High pump \u200bprices have become a political \u200cflashpoint for U.S. President Donald Trump and his Republican Party, which will soon be campaigning to hold on to thin majorities in the U.S. Congress in November midterm elections. <\/p>\n
Prices of gasoline rose alongside crude oil prices, which surged about 16% this week following the collapse of the truce between \u200cWashington and Tehran in early July. Retail fuel \u200bprices and crude oil typically move in \u200bthe same direction because crude \u200bfeedstock is the dominant cost for producing the fuel. <\/p>\n
Energy \u200cprices have also been supported by the \u200bloss of Russian \u200brefining capacity due to Ukraine intensifying attacks on energy infrastructure. <\/p>\n
Low U.S. fuel inventories also boosted prices. U.S. stockpiles stood at 210.5 million barrels \u200blast week, government \u200cdata showed, about 1.5 million barrels below the five-year average. <\/p>\n
(Reporting by \u200bNicole Jao in New York and Chandni Shah in Bengaluru; Editing \u200bby Aidan Lewis and Sharon Singleton) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Nicole Jao NEW YORK, July 20 (Reuters) – U.S. gasoline pump prices crossed the $4 a gallon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":775371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[22758,28,20684,101,89179,97941,330729,801,210369],"class_list":["post-775370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-american-automobile-association","tag-business","tag-crude-oil-prices","tag-economy","tag-energy-prices","tag-gasoline-prices","tag-gasoline-pump","tag-iran","tag-strait-of-hormuz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=775370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/775371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=775370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=775370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=775370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}