WASHINGTON — Prices at the gas pump likely peaked about a week ago and should start to slowly decline over the coming weeks as the war in Iran comes to a close, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Sunday.
“Putting this 47-year conflict to an end and preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapons, of course, has come with short-term disruption. I think we’ve managed it fantastically, though,” Wright told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
“Here we are in the middle of the largest interruption in [the] flow of energy ever, and gasoline prices peaked a week ago, about a dollar below the peak during the Biden administration.”
Earlier this month, average gas prices topped out at $4.16, according to an analysis from GasBuddy.
That is still below the record $5.01 a gallon in June 2022. Shortly after the war in Iran began, member countries of the International Energy Agency agreed to unleash 400 million barrels of oil in a bid to stabilize markets.
Wright cautioned that it could take until next year for gasoline prices to dip below $3 a gallon again — where they were before Operation Epicy Fury began on Feb. 28, underscoring how that price range “is pretty tremendous” in inflation-adjusted terms.
Nationally, gas prices are averaging $4.04, according to the latest data from the American Automobile Association.
“That might not happen until next year, but prices have likely peaked, and they’ll start going down,” he said when asked about getting prices down to $3 a gallon.
“Certainly, with a resolution of this conflict, you’ll see prices go down.”
President Trump has pushed countries that were dependent on oil flow through the Strait of Hormuz to purchase oil from the US as a means of curtailing the energy crisis inflicted on the world.
The Trump administration has also eased some sanctions on Russian energy, though Wright stressed that’s merely a temporary measure.
Over a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil supplies flow through the Strait of Hormuz annually.
Under normal circumstances, the US got about 2.5% of the oil supplies going through the strait, according to 2025 data from the US Energy Information Administration.
China got over a third of the oil, with India, South Korea, and Japan also getting a considerable percentage.
Still, the globalized nature of oil markets means that the crisis there is impacting the US.
The US and Iran agreed to a two-week cease-fire that is set to end on Wednesday.
Trump told The Post Sunday that he is dispatching special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Pakistan to hash out a peace deal with Iran.
Iran has disrupted oil flow through the Strait of Hormuz, which sits off its southwest coast, by sporadically launching missile and drone attacks against ships seeking to traverse the critical chokepoint.
In response, Trump has imposed a sweeping blockade upon Iran vessels attempting to pass through it as a means of ramping up pressure on Iran.
“After a deal is reached — it won’t be in the too-distant-future — people are ready to go. Ships are there. The United States put through two warships through the straits. We can open it one way or the other,” Wright said.
“But the best way to do it is to have an end to the conflict and a defanged and de-armed Iran.”
This story originally appeared on NYPost
