The average national gas price might be sitting above $4.30—a fourteen-year high—but there could be even more pain at the pump in store for American drivers.

As the war in Ukraine escalates, experts say that crude oil prices will likely continue to increase. And, unfortunately, that means gas prices will also head higher.

“Forget the $4 per gallon mark, the nation will soon set new all-time record highs and we could push closer to a national average of $4.50 per gallon,” Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said in a statement.

“California could be heading for $5.50 per gallon with more stations charging $6 and beyond. We’ve never been in this situation before, with this level of uncertainty. As we lose a major global producer under the weight of deserving bipartisan sanctions for invading a sovereign country, the cost is high. Americans will be feeling the pain of the rise in prices for quite some time, with little good news foreseen,” he continued.

An even more pessimistic view is held by Energy Word founder Dan Dicker. “You might get to $6.50 or $7” if oil prices were to eclipse $150 a barrel, he told Yahoo Finance.

A Global Recession?

As reported by CNET, Bjørnar Tonhaugen, head of oil markets for Rystad Energy, acknowledged that there is a possibility that oil could reach an eye-popping $240 a barrel by this summer.

“It would create a 4.3 million barrels-per-day hole in the market that simply cannot be quickly replaced by other sources of supply,” he wrote in a company note.

According to National Public Radio, $200 a barrel would push up gas prices to the $5.80-$5.90 range. And if the world actually witnessed $240 a barrel, Tonhaugen believed that would likely trigger a global recession later this year.

“The higher prices go, the larger the chances of the global economy entering a recession already in the fourth quarter of 2022,” he continued.

Most Americans Support Sanctions

Despite gas prices straining the pocketbooks of millions of Americans, a new CBS News poll suggests that there is strong nationwide support for sanctions on Russia, even if that means paying more at the pump.  

The poll found that 77 percent of Americans support sanctions on Russia’s oil and gas, with 63 percent supporting sanctions even if that means paying more for gas. Among those who favored sanctions, 82 percent of respondents said they wanted to “help Ukraine and punish Russia,” while 34 percent said they were “being patriotic.”

Furthermore, in order to cope with higher gas prices, 63 percent of Americans want to boost U.S. oil production, 49 percent want an increase in using renewable resources, and another 33 percent want to import more oil from the Middle East and South America.

Ethen Kim Lieser is a Washington state-based Science and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek, and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on LinkedIn.

Image: Reuters.