July 3 (UPI) -- Gas prices crept back up this week, just in time for the Independence Day holiday, as West Texas Intermediate futures rose 9 percent.
This comes as OPEC decides to maintain oil production cuts for another nine months, which keeps worldwide production down and prices up. Tensions continue to escalate with Iran, with Tehran threatening to develop weapon's grade uranium and attack Israel if the United States attacks.
Also, two oil tankers were attacked in the Gulf of Oman, raising concerns that the Strait of Hormuz could be restricted, cutting off 20 percent of the world's oil supply.
"The concern is maybe they go off the deep end and start more provocations with oil tankers or even with countries themselves," Gas Buddy's head of petroleum analysis Patrick DeHaan told USA Today.
The average price of gasoline was $2.712, up 4.6 cents from last week, Gas Buddy reported. Prices are up in nearly 25 states with California having the highest price at $3.77 a gallon. It's still well below the all-time high of $4.11 a gallon set on July 17, 2008.
"Gas prices in the U.S. broke their consecutive weekly streak of declines as we now move higher, following oil's rise after U.S.-Iran escalations," DeHaan told MarketWatch.
