Oil Prices Haven't Been This Low Since Before the Iran War

Oil is back to prices last seen before the opening strikes of the Iran war, even if relief at the pump is moving more slowly. Brent crude briefly slipped under $72.48 a barrel on Thursday—its pre-strike level from Feb. 28—before ticking up to about $73, as ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz continues to pick up, the BBC reports. The June 17 US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding and a partial easing of sanctions have helped push hundreds of vessels back into the waterway, though traffic is still below pre-war levels.

US gas prices have eased from April's recent high but remain elevated, prompting President Trump to order a probe into whether major oil companies are overcharging—a claim the industry rejects. "Gasoline prices better start going down a lot faster than what I'm seeing," Trump said early Wednesday. Michael Noel, a professor of economics at Texas Tech University, tells Time that there is a lag between crude oil prices and prices at the pump. "You can't just grab some crude oil out of the ground and a few minutes later put it into your gas tank," he says. "It's a very long supply chain, it takes a couple of months to get oil from the ground into barges to go around the world, then into refineries, and then through the pipeline system to eventually get to the gas pump."