The US national average gas price has dropped to $3.999 per gallon, according to AAA, down nearly 3 cents from the day before. This milestone comes as the Strait of Hormuz is set to reopen, part of an official memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States to end the war.

Impact on Gas Prices

The national average price at the pump has fallen every day since hitting a high of $4.56 on May 21 on hopes that ongoing negotiations would lead to a reopening of the strait. However, experts don’t expect prices to hit the pre-war average of $3 per gallon any time soon.

GasBuddy, another tracking service, puts the price early Thursday at about $3.98, after falling below the $4 on Sunday. The reopening of the strait is expected to take time, with Matt Smith, lead oil analyst at Kpler, stating it will likely take three or four months to fully get tankers sailing through the strait again.

The flow of oil from the Middle East still determines what American consumers and businesses pay, and long-term oil prices don’t show signs of falling back below the pre-war $70 a barrel level any time before the next decade.

Original reporting: KRDO (Colorado Springs metro) — read the source article.