EXCLUSIVE — Energy Secretary Chris Wright is staying away from predicting when gasoline prices will fall as the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, walking back his previous thought that the United States had seen peak prices at the pump.
Towards the end of April, Wright told lawmakers on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that while he does not know the future of gasoline and energy prices, he believed that it appeared gas prices peaked just a few days prior.
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“Often I will speculate or look at those things,” Wright said in his testimony. “I would say gasoline prices look like they peaked about a week or so ago.”
At the time, the national average price of gasoline was $4.02 a gallon. As of Friday, the national average has jumped to more than $4.52 a gallon.
When asked if he still stood by that remark during a phone interview with the Washington Examiner on Friday, Wright walked it back and clarified that he made the comment because a resolution to the war in Iran appeared to be close at hand.
“No, no, no,” he said. “A few weeks ago, I said it appears because we had hit a peak and gas prices started to pull down. It looked like we may have a resolution, but you know, we are dealing with the Iranians. Everything is unpredictable.”
While he steered clear of offering any timeline, Wright acknowledged that gasoline prices will not come down significantly until the Strait of Hormuz fully reopens.
“When gasoline prices start to go down depends on when we get traffic flowing [through] the Strait of Hormuz,” he said.
The secretary also pointed out that while gasoline prices are far above what they were before the war in Iran began — less than $3 a gallon on average — he said the administration has been able to keep prices below peaks seen under former President Joe Biden.
“I am frankly thrilled that we still have gasoline prices below the peak of the Biden administration, where there was no meaningful interruption in oil flows in the world,” Wright said.
Boosting U.S. energy exports
The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz has choked off roughly 20% of global oil trade, sending crude and gas prices soaring across the globe.
The conflict has particularly squeezed gas supply to Asia and Europe, which are now turning to the U.S. and other producers to reduce their reliance on the strait.
During President Donald Trump’s two-day summit in China this week, the White House said Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to purchase more energy products from the U.S.
“The two sides agreed that the Strait of Hormuz must remain open to support the free flow of energy,” the White House’s readout of a bilateral meeting between Trump and Xi said.
“President Xi also made clear China’s opposition to the militarization of the Strait and any effort to charge a toll for its use, and he expressed interest in purchasing more American oil to reduce China’s dependence on the Strait in the future,” the readout continued.
The secretary also touted the administration’s efforts to increase liquefied natural gas exports to Europe, particularly as flows remained constrained in the Middle East.
Wright said that in 2026, the U.S. is growing its export capacity to a little more than 2.5 billion cubic feet a day, roughly equivalent to one-quarter of the disruption seen in the Strait of Hormuz’s closure.
He specifically pointed to ramped-up operations at the Golden Pass LNG terminal in Corpus Christi, Texas, which began exporting LNG last month.
“It doesn’t fill the whole hole,” Wright said. “But it fills a nontrivial part of it, and of course, that disruption in the Strait of Hormuz will not be all year long. We’ll have those exports back up and going before too long.”
On Friday, Wright indicated that Alaska could play a key role in supplying Asian buyers with products such as oil and natural gas, given its geographic location.
CHRIS WRIGHT RETREATS ON GAS PRICE PREDICTION AFTER TRUMP DISAGREEMENT
“I think we’ll see more than a doubling in Alaskan oil production over the next five or six years, and that will have, yeah, very, very welcome buyers across Asia,” Wright said.
As for increased exports to China specifically, Wright told the Washington Examiner he did not have details on a schedule or volumes to share, but that he would be speaking with Trump about it “very soon.”
