What's the war in Iran costing American consumers?

Americans are paying more for gas than they were a week ago.

On Sunday, the price of oil hit $118 a barrel. It's since come down from those highs, but remains up sharply from the pre-war price of $70.

The price is being pushed up by disruption to oil supply out of the Persian Gulf – The Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, typically handles around 20 million barrels of oil a day – close to a fifth of global oil consumption.

But the war has brought tanker traffic in the Strait to basically a standstill.

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This episode was produced by Mia Venkat.

It was edited by Courtney Dorning, Kara Platoni and Luis Clemens.

Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.


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