Squeeze on Russian oil means more pain at pumps

If the guy who makes electric cars says the world needs to increase its oil and gas output, it suggests that the price of energy is causing global economic disruptions.

"Hate to say it, but we need to increase oil & gas output immediately," Tesla chief executive Elon Musk tweeted to his 76.7 million followers on Friday.

"Extraordinary times demand extraordinary measures. Obviously, this would negatively affect Tesla, but sustainable energy solutions simply cannot react instantaneously to make up for Russian oil& gas exports."

The military battles unfolding in Ukraine with Russia have made a tight energy market even tighter. And although Russian oil is still being exported, it is finding more nations less willing to take delivery.

The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in the United States on Sunday was $4.04, up $1.26 over the year-ago level and the first time since 2008 that it topped $4, according to a monitoring website GasBuddy.

The highest average price was in California, at $5.29 on Sunday, while the lowest, in Missouri, stood at $3.66.

The price of gasoline is tied to that of crude oil. On Friday, Brent crude, an international benchmark, settled at $118.11 a barrel, an increase of nearly 7 percent from Thursday.

"The Russia-Ukraine conflict has intensified what was already a global oil market that was tight on supplies," said Montrae Waiters, a spokeswoman for the American Automobile Association. "Sanctions and regulations have effectively removed Russian oil from the market."

In 2021, the US imported a daily average of 209,000 barrels of crude oil and 500,000 barrels of other petroleum products from Russia, according to the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers. That represented 3 percent of US crude imports.

The White House is now considering halting Russian oil imports.

'Coordinated way'

"We are now talking to our European partners and allies to look in a coordinated way at the prospect of banning the import of Russian oil," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN's State of the Union program on Sunday.

Adam Pankratz, a professor at the University of British Columbia's Sauder School of Business, told the Al Jazeera network that any moves by the US and other nations to stop importing Russian oil "would make a very tight oil market already much tighter".

The administration of US President Joe Biden also has looked to import more oil from Venezuela and eventually Iran, two countries that US administrations have been staunchly opposed to.

US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday said the chamber is exploring legislation to ban imports of Russian oil and that Congress intends to enact this week $10 billion in aid for Ukraine in response to Russia's military actions.

"Our bill would ban the import of Russian oil and energy products into the United States, repeal normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus, and take the first step to deny Russia access to the World Trade Organization," Pelosi said in a letter.

Agencies contributed to this story.