American gasoline prices increase most
in one week since 2020
The Center Square,
by
Alton Wallace
Original Article
Posted By: Mercedes44,
3/7/2026 9:07:04 AM
American gasoline prices continued to rise on Friday and are up the most of any week since 2022. Iran widened attacks on energy-producing countries near its borders and the Strait of Hormuz remains closed to shipping, dashing hopes for a quick resolution to a crisis sending shockwaves through global markets. The United States last Saturday began a military campaign in Iran, one that has continued throughout the week with aggression. Friday at 1 p.m. Eastern, the U.S. national average price for regular gasoline had jumped approximately 35.9 cents per gallon from the same time in the previous week, reaching approximately $3.34 per gallon, according to GasBuddy.
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Reply 1 - Posted by:
red1066 3/7/2026 9:28:36 AM (No. 2077248)
This too will pass. We know when these prices will end.
16 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Venturer 3/7/2026 9:29:30 AM (No. 2077249)
They will go back down when the Iranians are defeated.
17 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Quigley 3/7/2026 9:39:13 AM (No. 2077263)
I believe that I will be shorting oil this coming week. The administration was prepared for this. Bessent says it was an insurance question (Lloyd's canceled policies at the outbreak of the hostilities) and that the US will provide insurance for vessels in the gulf; after they exit the gulf, the Lloyds policies will reinstate and the US policies will terminate.
We have a VERY energetic Executive!!!!
12 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
jeffkinnh 3/7/2026 9:51:25 AM (No. 2077268)
Yeah, what NOT a surprise. The stock market is dropping as well.
You know why? Because all these things have nothing to do with real economic concerns. They are caused by the market players that game the system. They dump at a high price and pocket their gains. That influences the market to drop, and then they buy back in at a low point for the eventual rise back to where the price was. Oil is a commodity and the prices are gamed the same way by the big players. The players are always looking for these opportunities to game the system to make more money. Small fish, especially nervous ones, jump out at the market bottom as losers. Smart smaller investors ride the wave and eventually recover.
The worst part of it is that the opposition political players and media (different tentacles of the same entity) use the market fall as a measurement of the rightness of the associated action (Iran). Falling market = Iran BAD. The two things are only liked through opportunists taking advantage of it.
10 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
cor-vet 3/7/2026 9:51:26 AM (No. 2077269)
This illustrates why we need to be energy independents. Thanks to the liberals in congress, we aren't right now. Of course, they will make sure that they have fuel for their private planes and the limos they love to ride in, at our expense.
11 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Vaquero45 3/7/2026 10:10:22 AM (No. 2077282)
Give it a couple of weeks. The Strait of Hormuz will be cleaned out by next Friday.
18 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Kate318 3/7/2026 10:16:53 AM (No. 2077288)
I was just noticing a couple of days ago that the gas prices in my area were the lowest I have seen them in years.
7 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
chumley 3/7/2026 10:17:49 AM (No. 2077289)
Yeah. And grocery prices are temporary tool. So are rents and car prices. There are no temporary price increases, only temporary reductions. They always go back to ripping off Americans.
5 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
franq 3/7/2026 10:19:14 AM (No. 2077292)
I've seen it spike with just the threat of a Gulf hurricane. Panic buying, too
7 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
earlybird 3/7/2026 10:25:00 AM (No. 2077298)
Panic is primarily media-created.
11 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
earlybird 3/7/2026 10:27:27 AM (No. 2077303)
BTW, gas prices affect grocery prices as those goods must be transported to our markets.
8 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
LC Chihuahua 3/7/2026 10:43:00 AM (No. 2077314)
War will do that.
Can imagine most of Washington is OK with that. If they can't raise taxes, they can raise revenue for all of their out of control spending through inflation.
4 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
bighambone 3/7/2026 10:45:22 AM (No. 2077318)
Remember what goes up will come back down, that applied to even oil prices.
6 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
Skinnydip 3/7/2026 11:29:29 AM (No. 2077351)
Sounds like a good time to replenish the Strategic Petroleum Reserve that Biden depleted.
2 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
DVC 3/7/2026 1:49:50 PM (No. 2077398)
Our pump prices have moved from $2.59 to $2.89. Not exactly a massive surge, and still well below where they were under Traitor Joe.
5 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
red1066 3/7/2026 3:17:50 PM (No. 2077419)
Currently, there are more than 70 oil tankers sitting idly by just outside the Strait of Hormoz with another 50 or more tankers sitting just off the coast of Dubai. This doesn't count the number of oil tankers or natural gas ships that are also in the mix located in the gulf or just outside the gulf. Most of these ships are not destined to come to the U.S. Even if all these ships finally get to port, it will take several days to fill each ship plus the time it will take to travel to its destination. Add in the time it will take to refine the product within each ship, and we're looking at probably at least a couple of months before we see gas prices go down to where they were before all this started.
3 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
DVC 3/7/2026 7:44:35 PM (No. 2077465)
Re #16, your scenario would make sense IF THE PRICE INCREASE WERE CAUSED BY AN ACTUAL OIL SHORTAGE.
But, there is no oil shortage anywhere. NONE. Not in China, not in Europe, not in Japan.
This oil price jump is purely speculative. If there was a real shortage of oil, it would take time, just as you propose, to correct it.
Since this is only "maybe there will be a shortage" because of the temporary ship insurance problems, making ship owners wait. The insurance clubs (yes, they are really a consortium of ship owners) are reworking their fees and conditions. Ships will soon be insured, at higher rates, and moving through the straits.
As soon as this happens, the oil speculators, will back off and oil will drop.
This will be in a few weeks, not months, since it's totally a psychological thing, not a physical shortage. And it won't drop all the way to what it was in a hurry, since sellers hold on to higher prices (higher profits) until forced down by market pressures.
China and Japan have dozens of fully laden oil tankers anchored off of their coasts, waiting for port space to unload. These tankers effectively act as a shock absorber to smooth out minor supply flow disturbances.
3 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
mariboo72 3/7/2026 7:45:10 PM (No. 2077466)
Our gas prices have gone up by more than a dollar lin 10 days. $3.89 this morning
2 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
red1066 3/7/2026 8:42:12 PM (No. 2077476)
You're right #17. I was only stating the timeline between the length of time to fill a ship, plus the travel time, plus the refining time. All that product will then have to be distributed. An oil shortage will occur somewhere if the transportation of product is interrupted for too long.
1 person likes this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
Penelope27 3/7/2026 9:03:27 PM (No. 2077479)
Gas prices have gone up. If we're using the example of filling up our gas tanks, I’ll end up paying an extra $6.50 each time. That’s a small price to pay if it means ridding the world of a despot who has spent nearly fifty years waging war against the United States. And by "war with the US," I mean he mainly brutalized and murdered his own people. Even so, if this is the cost, I’m willing to pay it.
Even if I, personally, have to pay a few thousand dollars more each year for everything, I’ll find a way to manage. It would still be a small price to pay to see that oppressor—so many names come to mind—finally gone from this world. This situation is very different from what I experienced under the Biden administration, when similar price hikes happened, but the result was the government simply taking more, printing more money, and causing inflation to spike to nearly 10%. In that case, the American people received nothing in return.
2 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
homefry 3/8/2026 7:30:59 AM (No. 2077522)
That will happen during a war. What would it be now had Trump not been supporting drill baby drill?
0 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
Red Jeep 3/8/2026 7:44:19 AM (No. 2077525)
Why is it whenever something like the attack on Iran occurs, the prices at my neighborhood gas station rise immediately, as if the gas pumps are directly connected to Iranian gas? Is this caused by gas suppliers greed, using any excuse to raise prices?
1 person likes this.
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