Don’t Blame Ukraine for High Gas Prices — SkimNews
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- Chris Wright blamed Ukraine's drone and missile strikes on Russian refineries for record U.S. gas prices, but the piece argues the real cause is the U.S.-Israel war on Iran and its fallout across Gulf and Red Sea shipping lanes.
- Global crude blew past $100 a barrel to roughly $105, with U.S. average gasoline at $4.29 a gallon (up a dollar year-over-year) and diesel hitting $6 a gallon for the first time ever.
- Strait of Hormuz traffic has collapsed from 20 million barrels a day pre-war to an estimated 8–9 million barrels a day per independent tanker trackers, with Iran-linked forces striking tankers that attempt the transit.
- Houthis seized coastal positions and the Hanish Islands and Zuqar, and are threatening Mayun (Perim Island), while also attacking the Saudi East-West pipeline (5 million barrels/day) and tankers near Yanbu.
- Sergey Aleksashenko, former deputy chairman of Russia's central bank, estimated Ukrainian strikes have knocked out only 12–15% of Russian refinery throughput, since drone damage is light and repairs are quick.
- IEA data shows global refinery throughput remains 5 million barrels a day below last year's average due to offline Russian, Middle Eastern, and Chinese refineries — a bottleneck the piece calls more consequential than either Hormuz or Bab el-Mandeb.
- U.S. military action has destroyed 12 of roughly 60 Iranian-linked tankers, while Trump said the Iran war will continue through the November midterms.
Why it matters: U.S. drivers and farmers face $6 diesel during harvest season, and the piece argues the Trump administration is scapegoating Zelensky to deflect blame from its own Iran war, which has gutted Gulf transit from 20 million to 8–9 million barrels a day and is now spreading to the Saudi pipeline workaround via Houthi attacks.
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