Gas Prices Continue To Rise Despite Reserve Releases

The price of gas and diesel has been steadily rising since the U.S. conflict with Iran began.

Iran is continuing a blockade on the Strait of Hormuz and have attacked multiple tankers and fuel production infrastructure in the region.

CBS News Moneywatch Correspondent Kelly O’Grady says that’s impeding the efforts of the strategic oil release, “The tankers are still being attacked in the Strait of Hormuz. So yes, 400 million barrels feels like a lot, but when you’ve got 15 million going through the Strait of Hormuz every single day that can’t get there, it’s only about 25 days of supply of oil. So it helps, but it really doesn’t solve the problem.”

The U-S and its allies are trying to force oil prices down — by releasing supplies from their reserves, but O’Grady says markets already priced that release into the price of oil, “They’re releasing 400 million barrels of oil, and that’s the largest in history. And so the idea is if you put more supply of oil into the market, you’re going to see prices go down. But they didn’t yesterday. And I actually just checked and oils back above $90.00 a barrel. And the reason why is that this release was already baked into the price of oil. Oil traders saw this coming. It was very telegraphed.”

As of Thursday, the nationwide average per gallon of regular unleaded stood at $3.60 according to the Triple-A.