US gasoline hits $4.54 a gallon, up 52% since Iran war began

American drivers paid an average of $4.54 per gallon for gasoline Wednesday — 52% more than before the Iran war began — after a 31-cent jump in a single week driven by Iran's ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the Korea Times reported.

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz — through which 20% of the world's crude oil normally flows — has triggered what analysts describe as the largest oil supply disruption in market history, with no quick fix in sight. Southern California drivers, including those in Orange County, already shoulder above-average prices due to state taxes and local refining costs.

Crude oil accounts for 51% of the price at the pump, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). After Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, crude prices surged as high as $112 per barrel in early April 2026, the Korea Times reported. Federal and state taxes add another 17%, with refining costs and profits at 14% and distribution and marketing at 17%.

The price shock first hit in early March, when gasoline jumped 48 cents in a single week at the start of the Iran war — nearly matching the largest weekly increase on record, a 60-cent surge in March 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine.

Bob Kleinberg, adjunct senior research scholar at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy, said the link between crude and retail prices is nearly immediate. "Not much of a mystery here," he told the Korea Times. "It's not exactly proportional but the shape of the curves follows the same pattern, and really with very little delay." He added that "the oil market is exquisitely sensitive to what's coming out of the White House."

Prices briefly eased in mid-April after initial ceasefire talks stirred optimism. Rob Smith, director of Global Fuel Retail at S&P Global Energy, described the shift: "After the announcement of the initial ceasefire, there was kind of optimism that this really could be the beginning of the end of the conflict. And so crude prices came down correspondingly, gasoline spot prices followed, and so on and ... the retailers lowered prices as well."

The relief proved short-lived. Jim Krane, energy research fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute, said the Trump administration's April decision to block Iranian port exports added new pressure on an already strained market. "Iran had been moving an unusually high amount of oil to global markets, so that was helping moderate prices," Krane said. "The Trump administration decides they're going to punish Iran, and try to put more pressure on Iran by blocking their exports, so of course that does put pressure on Iran, but also puts pressure on global oil prices and forces them up. That was probably a big factor."

Smith said the underlying supply crunch has not eased. "There's a fundamental shortfall that will exist globally or fundamental struggle to meet that demand that will drive up price," he said. "No matter what a government says or what any market person thinks, there is a true kind of upward pressure that's being exerted on prices every day the Strait of Hormuz is constrained. And it is still severely constrained."

Even a peace deal may not quickly ease prices, Smith warned. "Even if there was a true and lasting resolution of the conflict, both sides agree to play nice and truly do commit to keeping Hormuz open, it will still take months to get back to what it was pre-war, if not even longer," he said. "There will still be within the industry a risk premium associated with going through that region. Not that it was ever a perfectly safe journey, but the past few months have shown that it'll be hard to convince shippers and insurance companies that the risk level will be similar to what it was in February. It'll be a long time before anyone can be convinced of that."