{"id":209823,"date":"2026-05-05T17:51:53","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T17:51:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/gas-prices-rise-to-4-46-per-gallon-and-oil-jumps-as-shippers-stay-out-of-strait-of-hormuz-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T17:51:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T17:51:53","slug":"gas-prices-rise-to-4-46-per-gallon-and-oil-jumps-as-shippers-stay-out-of-strait-of-hormuz-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/gas-prices-rise-to-4-46-per-gallon-and-oil-jumps-as-shippers-stay-out-of-strait-of-hormuz-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Gas prices rise to $4.46 per gallon and oil jumps as shippers stay out of Strait of Hormuz &#8211; NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> news Alerts<br \/>There are no new alerts at this time<br \/>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/data-graphics\/gas-prices-iran-war-state-national-cost-trump-rcna265835\" target=\"_blank\">national average price of gas<\/a> pushed higher Monday to $4.46 per gallon, as oil futures rose again after three days of declines, increasing the Iran war&#8217;s direct cost to consumers.<br \/>Subscribe to read this story ad-free    <br \/>Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.<br \/>U.S. crude oil closed up 4.4% at $106.42 per barrel, while international Brent crude oil closed higher by 5.8% at $114.44 per barrel. Wholesale gas prices also jumped 3%.<br \/>Since the Iran war began in late February, the national average price of unleaded gas has risen 49%. <br \/>Stocks fell Monday as investors tried to parse the uncertainty. The S&#038;P 500 fell 0.4%, the Nasdaq fell 0.2%, and the Dow tumbled 557 points.<br \/>The renewed rise in oil prices came despite President Donald Trump announcing a plan Sunday dubbed &#8220;Project Freedom,&#8221; under which the United States will &#8220;guide&#8221; commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz. More than 20% of the world&#8217;s oil supplies typically transit the strait every day, but the war has halted that traffic.<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/donald-trump\/trump-says-us-will-begin-escorting-ships-strait-hormuz-rcna343364\" target=\"_blank\">Trump&#8217;s announcement<\/a> appeared to fall short of naval escorts, which shipping companies and insurers say are what would be required for them to send their ships through the waterway again.<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/data-graphics\/strait-of-hormuz-ports-traffic-trump-us-iran-war-rcna331507\" target=\"_blank\">Traffic in the strait<\/a> nudged upward Friday, when 19 vessels crossed, and then declined over the weekend, according to data from S&#038;P Global. On Monday, just four ships in total crossed the strait. The traffic is still a small fraction of what it was before the war, when 150 ships would regularly cross each day.<br \/>As of Monday morning, the shipping industry had not received details or guidance regarding &#8220;Project Freedom,&#8221; said Jakob Larsen, chief safety and security officer with the Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO), which counts more than 2,000 shipping companies among its members. <br \/>As the war drags on, U.S. consumers are now spending around $1 billion more per day in higher fuel costs than they were before the start of the war, according to longtime oil industry analyst Andy Lipow. $550 million of that comes from gas prices alone, but it also the reflects a sharp rise in the price of jet fuel, diesel and other energy products.<br \/>Larsen, of BIMCO, told NBC News it was unclear Monday whether Trump\u2019s \u201cProject Freedom\u201d plan was intended to be in place for the long run or whether it would be a limited operation to get some of the trapped ships out.<br \/>\u201cThe overall security situation for the shipping industry is currently unchanged, and our advice is for all shipowners to continue carrying out thorough risk assessments,\u201d he added.  <br \/>Global shipping giant Hapag-Lloyd told NBC News in an email Monday that its risk assessment of the situation in the strait remained unchanged and the strait remained closed for transit of its vessels.<br \/>There were also new questions this weekend about a U.S. government program launched last month with the goal of helping insurers write policies to cover ships near the strait. <br \/>On Saturday, Berkshire Hathaway, one of the world&#8217;s largest insurers, said that it had yet to write a single insurance policy under the program because it was still too dangerous.<br \/>In order for Berkshire to issue one of these policies, the U.S. Navy would have to escort the ships out, said Ajit Jain, vice chairman of insurance operations. &#8220;But nothing&#8217;s happened as yet,&#8221; he said.<br \/>The president also offered few indications over the weekend that the war would end soon, posting on social media that he doubted Iran&#8217;s latest offer for negotiations and that Iran has &#8220;not yet paid a big enough price for what they have done to Humanity, and the World, over the last 47 years.&#8221;<br \/>Meanwhile, the price of jet fuel has risen about 65% since the war started, according to data from the Argus U.S. Jet Fuel Index. <br \/>&#8220;To mitigate some of the supply disruption out of the Middle East, the world has tapped Strategic Petroleum Reserve releases as well as commercial inventories,&#8221; Lipow wrote in a note Monday. <br \/>&#8220;In the USA, Gasoline inventories are down 14% and diesel inventories are down 17% since the beginning of February,&#8221; he wrote. Lipow warned that the oil market is taking notice of that and it&#8217;s translating into higher prices. <br \/>&#8220;This is bad news for the consumer as $4.50 gasoline is around the corner,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;If the Strait remains closed another month, we will be at $5.00 per gallon.&#8221;<br \/>Prices in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan have risen the most since the war with Iran began, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/data-graphics\/gas-prices-iran-war-state-national-cost-trump-rcna265835\" target=\"_blank\">according to data compiled by NBC News<\/a>. While Georgia, Hawaii, Delaware and Minnesota have seen the smallest increases, the price jumps in those states have still amounted to more than $1.10 per gallon.<br \/>In Mono County, California, prices rose to $7 per gallon. The state of California also ranked as the most expensive Monday, with prices averaging $6.11.<br \/>&#8220;Retail prices for regular grade gasoline in California are consistently higher than in any other state in the continental United States, often exceeding the national average by more than a dollar per gallon,&#8221; according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That&#8217;s because of &#8220;state taxes and fees, environmental requirements, special fuel requirements, and isolated petroleum markets.&#8221;<br \/>The state with the least expensive gas Monday was Georgia, at $3.86 per gallon.<br \/>&#8220;We are cognizant that this short-term blip up in prices is affecting the American people,&#8221; Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a Fox News interview Monday morning. &#8220;But I am also confident on the other side of this, prices are going to come down very quickly.&#8221;<br \/>Bessent added that &#8220;corporate earnings are good, employment is good &#8230; and this temporary aberration will be over in a matter of weeks or a month.&#8221;<br \/>Steve Kopack is a senior reporter at NBC News covering business and the economy.<br \/>Yuliya Talmazan is a reporter for NBC News Digital, based in London.<br \/>&copy;&nbsp;2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/rss\/articles\/CBMijwFBVV95cUxQZEYwYmlJUkFaMHBFRFdYbUVTSzdDRUlCcC1ORDY3U3l6LUpkeUplRWxuNzg2Zl9Jd0NWS2xTMnV1YWNFX1JTbzZ5ZUZqZExlZGVQbF9xTWVLSDBKbEVGdGR5cll6OW11R0ZDMU9YMElsRlhtQ0VYNm9SZEpfZWpuNXJuejY0NUdoazhtR01nNA?oc=5\">source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeThe national average price of gas pushed higher Monday to $4.46 per gallon, as oil futures rose again after three days of declines, increasing the Iran war&#8217;s direct cost to consumers.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.U.S. crude oil [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":209824,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-209823","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}