As oil prices surged to a new wartime high last week, with Brent crude briefly touching $126 on April 30, U.S. gasoline prices also continued their upward trend. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the national average price of regular gasoline reached $4.45 per gallon on Monday, May 4, up 8 percent from the previous week and more than 50 percent from the pre-war level.
This is the highest level since mid-2022, when gasoline prices were at historical highs following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022. While prices reached even higher back then, with the national average briefly climbing past $5 in June 2022, the increase didn’t come as quickly as this time around. Between February 21 and June 13, 2022, the average price of regular gasoline climbed from $3.53 to $5.01, a 42-percent increase in 16 weeks. In comparison, gas prices surged 52 percent in just 10 weeks since the U.S. and Israel launched the first airstrikes against Iran on February 28.
