New York —
In the summer of 2008, weeks before the investment bank Lehman Brothers imploded, oil prices skyrocketed to nearly $150 a barrel. Some oil watchers are warning of even higher prices this summer if the vital Strait of Hormuz doesn’t reopen soon.
US oil prices have already spiked from about $65 to around $100 since the start of the war in the Middle East. Crude spiked by 51% in March alone, the second-biggest one-month increase since futures trading launched in 1983.
Meanwhile, gasoline prices have surged above $4 a gallon nationally and will likely