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The nationwide average retail price reached $5.044 a gallon on March 16, according to AAA, up by more than a third since the Iran conflict began. 

While rates are high, they signal that coverage is available for the few vessels still moving through the waterway. The question is whether shipowners are willing to make the transit.

After years of being antagonized by President Trump, U.S. allies in Europe and Asia are in no hurry to heed his demand that they send ships into a war he started and has claimed to have won.

Fears of a global energy crisis rose March 16 as the war in the Middle East raged on, with more U.S.-Israeli strikes on the Iranian capital and Israel's bombardment of Lebanon.

President Donald Trump on March 14 called on other countries to send warships to keep the strait open, saying he hopes China, France, Japan, South Korea and the U.K. would take part.

Brent crude traded near $100 a barrel following one of the most volatile weeks ever for the oil market, with investors bracing for more upheaval as Iran pledged to keep the Strait of Hormuz shut.

Prices of fuels like diesel and jet fuel are surging as refineries in the region reduce production or shut completely, while fuel makers elsewhere balk at high crude prices.

“The United States is the largest oil producer in the world, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money,” Trump posted on social media.

Iran has escalated its attacks aimed at generating enough global economic pain to pressure the U.S. and Israel to end the war, targeting oil fields and refineries in a handful of Gulf Arab nations.

The Trump administration plans to release 172 million barrels from the U.S. emergency oil reserve as part of the coordinated effort by nations around the world to ease surging crude and fuel prices.