In the past few weeks, we have seen one of the largest jumps in gas prices since 2005. There has been a lot of debate recently about the causes of this increase in the price of oil. Although Libya only provides 2% of the oil to the United States, according to a recent CNN, article we can see in the data provided by the U.S. Census Bureau that in fact the price of oil from Libya has increased over the past few months.

The chart below illustrates the total Value of imports for crude oil, which has increased 31% since September 2010 when we started to see the rise in gas prices. We can also see a rise in the price per kilogram of crude oil, which has increased by $0.21 since January 2010 and by $0.18 since September 2010.

While conflict continues in areas that supply oil to the United States, we will continue to see shifts in oil prices.