CHICAGO (CBS) — Oil prices are spiking after Iran cut off exports to Britain and France and threatened to expand the embargo to other European countries, and that means gas prices are skyrocketing too.

“They are getting pretty ridiculous,” one man said Monday morning.

LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio’s Regine Schlesinger reports

But as WBBM Newsradio’s Regine Schlesinger reports, if you think gas prices are ridiculous now, just you wait.

Analyst Phil Flynn of PFGBEST says oil prices are going up because of the fear factor.

“There’s panic buying going on, you know, across the globe. A lot of countries outside the United States are very worried that they’re not going to be able to get their hands on this high-quality Iranian crude, and they’re looking for alternatives,” Flynn said, “and so, that is driving up the cost of oil pretty much across the globe.”

Flynn says if, somehow, tensions over Iran ease, oil prices may collapse.

But if the situation escalates, Flynn says we could see prices of $5 per gallon at the pump.

According to ChicagoGasPrices.com, on Monday morning, the highest price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline was at Charley’s Service Center, at St. Charles Road and Harvard Avenue in Villa Park, where the price was $3.99. Also toward the top were the Mobil station at 1106 W. Fullerton Ave. near DePaul University, where the price was $3.96, and the Shell station at 18th and Ruble streets just off the Dan Ryan Expressway, where the price was $3.95.

The lowest price was a tie between the Costco at 830 E. Boughton Rd. in Bolingbrook, and the Sam’s Club at 7430 Woodward Ave. in Woodridge, both of which posted prices of $3.29.