Americans Hit Hardest by War-Driven Oil Price Surge

OilPrice.com · Irina Slav · 2026-10-27 23:00 UTC

Americans face the largest estimated fuel inflation burden from the Middle East war, accounting for $160 billion of the $468 billion global increase, according to CREA.

Americans are paying the biggest portion of global energy price inflation resulting from the war in the Middle East, a Finnish energy and climate outlet has reported. Estimating the global total in fuel inflation at $468 billion, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air said the U.S. portion of this total stood at $160 billion.

On a per-capita basis, Americans are also paying the most, CREA also said, estimating their additional costs at $471 per person, while the global total has been estimated at an average of $60. The fact that this is an average per-capita additional fuel cost could be misleading: comparing a global average to a national average is not, strictly speaking, a fair comparison.

What is more, CREA is comparing fuel costs specifically, but the war between the United States, Israel, and Iran has also affected electricity costs—and other countries have fared inarguably worse than the U.S. because of their reliance on imported gas and coal, while the U.S. benefits from its position as the world’s largest natural gas producer.

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