By Aldgra Fredly
The national average retail price for regular gasoline in the United States surpassed $4 on March 31 amid rising oil prices triggered by the war in Iran.
This marks the first time gasoline prices have reached $4 per gallon since August 2022, when Russia launched its war against Ukraine, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA).
AAA data shows the average national price for a gallon of gasoline is now $4.018 on March 31, a jump of more than $1 from $2.982 the previous month. The gas price was $3.168 per gallon a year ago.
The national average price for a gallon of diesel climbed to $5.454 on March 31, up from $5.345 a week before, according to AAA. The price was $3.758 last month and $3.598 a year ago.
Oil prices have risen sharply since U.S.–Israeli military operations against Iran began on Feb. 28, and Tehran has retaliated by firing missiles and drones at Israeli and U.S. targets across Gulf nations.
The escalating conflict in the Middle East has caused many tankers to stop transiting the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway through which a significant share of global oil and gas shipments pass.
The Trump administration has since taken steps to contain the surge in oil prices, including temporarily authorizing the sale of Russian crude oil and petroleum products currently stranded at sea, effective until April 11.
In a bid to keep oil prices down, the Treasury Department on March 20 issued a 30-day sanctions waiver to allow the sale of Iranian crude oil and petroleum products stranded at sea. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the move could bring up to 140 million barrels of oil to global markets, but Iran will have difficulty accessing the revenue.
Members of the International Energy Agency (IEA) also agreed on March 11 to release 400 million barrels of oil from reserves, the largest withdrawal on record, with the United States contributing 172 million barrels of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
On March 30, President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post that U.S. officials were in talks with “a new, and more reasonable regime” to end the military operations in Iran for Tehran’s surrender of its nuclear weapons program and other conditions. He warned that the U.S. military could blow up Iran’s energy infrastructure if the Iranian regime fails to reopen the strait.
Trump had earlier given Tehran a 48-hour deadline to reopen the strait. He later scrapped that deadline and, on March 23, imposed a five-day deadline amid ongoing negotiations, then extended it again on March 26 by another 10 days to April 6, citing a request from the Iranian regime.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has threatened to shut access to the Strait of Hormuz and target energy facilities in nations across the Middle East that host U.S. forces if the United States or Israel attacks its energy infrastructure.
