MW It now costs $160 to fill up America's top-selling vehicle as the Iran war nears its 10th week

By Myra P. Saefong

Roughly two months since the Iran war began, U.S. drivers are feeling the pinch of four-year highs in gasoline prices at the pump

Regular unleaded gas has climbed almost 50% in nine weeks, to $4.42 a gallon late Friday morning, according to GasBuddy.

U.S. drivers are feeling the pinch of gasoline prices at the pump that have climbed to four-year highs in the roughly two months since the Iran war began.

The average national price for a gallon of regular unleaded gas was at $4.42 late Friday morning, according to GasBuddy. That equates to roughly $160 to fill up a newer Ford $(F)$ F-150 pickup truck - the bestselling vehicle in the U.S. for decades running.

Gas prices nationally are up about 48% from the $2.98 average on Feb. 27, the day before the U.S. and Israel launched the war against Iran. Prices have climbed to their highest level since the summer of 2022.

Yet, as the saying goes, there's always someone worse off.

There's no country worse off right now than Myanmar, where retail gas prices have roughly doubled in the same period, according to J.P. Morgan. From Feb. 23 to April 27, gas prices in Malaysia, Pakistan and the Philippines have increased by roughly 50%, as the below chart shows.

While gasoline prices have climbed by 37% in Southeast Asia, the increase in U.S. prices, which J.P. Morgan pegged at closer to 42%, still outpaces most regions outside of Asia.

Read: The U.S. produces the most oil in the world. So why are gasoline prices so high?

The most immediate physical disruption to fuel supplies has been felt in Southeast Asia, given the region's heavy reliance on oil flows through the Middle East, strategists at J.P. Morgan led by Natasha Kaneva wrote in a Friday research note.

Oil flow through the Strait of the Hormuz, one of the world's most important chokepoints for seaborne oil, has remained largely halted since the start of the war on Feb. 28.

The average price in Myanmar was $1.56 per liter as of April 27, according to GlobalPetrolPrices.com, which tracks retail energy prices around the world. Assuming 3.79 liters per gallon, that's $5.91 a gallon.

The jump in fuel costs has followed a spike in global oil prices (BRN00), which increased 63% in the month of March, the largest monthly rise based on records dating back to 1988, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Prices rose another 3.7% in April.

Read: Oil's surge to $125 a barrel just made the next bet for traders a lot harder

Many countries have been dealing with the fallout of rising oil prices over the last eight weeks or so, said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. And many more countries are seeing reductions in gas consumption, he said, either through rationing or by encouraging students and employees to work remotely.

Back in the U.S., regional issues had a big impact on retail gas prices this week, De Haan noted. Refinery issues in the Great Lakes and the prairies of Canada fed into significant price increases for those two areas, including the states of Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and Wisconsin.

Those states are fed by the BP $(BP)$ refinery in Whiting, Ind. - one of the largest in the country, which recently saw a disruption tied to a power issue. Some units within the Whiting refinery experienced a brief loss of electrical power on April 26, BP said in a statement, adding that power was quickly restored and operations were returned to normal.

Some Midwest states are seeing gas prices approach record highs, according to De Haan.

Michigan's average price was at $4.89 Friday, less than 4% from its all-time high of $5.074 on June 8, 2022, GasBuddy data show. The national average remains about 12% below the highest recorded price of $5.03 from June 16, 2022.

Over the past week, prices per gallon were up $1.09 in Indiana, 94 cents in Ohio and 88 cents in Michigan, according to a post by De Haan on Substack. "This isn't a slow grind higher - this is a rapid repricing event," he wrote.

At the $4.42 national average on Friday, filling up an empty 36-gallon-capacity tank in a newer Ford F-150 pickup truck would cost just over $159. At an average of $6.05 a gallon in California, it would cost almost $218 to fill up that same Ford F-150 truck. Ford did not immediately respond to a reqest for comment on whether high gas prices have impacted its truck sales.

But even for a car with an average-sized gas tank of around 15 gallons, it would cost you $66 to fill up from empty at these prices.

See: Ford's profit jumps as carmaker powers through an EV slowdown

Claudia Assis contributed.

-Myra P. Saefong

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May 01, 2026 17:01 ET (21:01 GMT)

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