The markets for fossil fuels are being turned upside in some areas of the world, and it's having effects on their economies, while one expert believes Texas could see $4 gasoline in the future.
With the Strait of Hormuz closed for a third week, Russian refineries being hammered on an almost daily basis by Ukraine, a slow release of stored oil around the world and various forms of oil products starting to become scarce, the experts who watch oil and gasoline prices say they're having to double down just to keep up.
"Gasoline prices are up another forty cents during this past two weeks, the new average is $4.06 per gallon," says Trilby Lundberg, publisher of the gasoline market analysis leader the Lundberg Survey.
"From the pre-war price five weeks ago, we've got a rise of a dollar and four cents, and there is a possibility that if oil prices go higher sand don't retreat, we could see another dollar a gallon rise at the pump, and gas could go up to $5.25 per gallon" on a national basis, she says.
The outlook for Texas is somewhat more hopeful, but even so, $4 a gallon gas is not hard to imagine and not easy for the pocketbook to accept.
Thousands of US Marines have arrived in the Persian Gulf area, ready for what some analysts say will be a reopening of the Strait, which is a major chokepoint for the world's oil, fertilizer, helium, natural gas liquids and other things.
The longer the Strait is closed the harder it will be to buy those products and the higher prices will be.