But it has settled above $120 a barrel, a very high figure indeed. With February one-third over, the monthly average (below) for February is around $123, well above the last spike high of $118 last April. President Obama Monday blamed this latest price jump on all the war talk, which is being heard from GOP presidential candidates. Obama said, “The biggest driver of these high gas prices is speculation about possible war in the Middle East, which is why we’ve been trying to reduce some of the loose talk about war there.”