NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - With war looming and a general strike freezing Venezuelan exports, U.S. oil prices have skyrocketed. Hitting $32.50 a barrel, the price of crude oil has hit a two year high.

Sooner or later, consumers end up paying those extra costs. Here's what you might expect to pay for gasoline and other products.

Wholesale prices for gasoline have jumped over 12 cents a gallon over the past month, according to the Petroleum Industry Research Foundation. With oil at $32 a barrel, gasoline at the pump averages about $1.50 a gallon.

"It's a reasonable expectation that costs would be passed along to consumers," Lichtblau said. "The single most important cost factor in a gallon of gasoline, besides tax, is the cost of crude oil."

He said Venezuela -- the world's fifth-largest oil exporter -- is also a major factor behind the rising oil prices.

"People are waiting in line for hours to get gasoline in Venezuela," Lichtblau added. "In recent history, this is the first time the country has to import gasoline in order to meet its domestic demand."

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In 1998, when oil cost $14.40 a barrel, the average household expenditure on gasoline and diesel products was $1,100. By 2000, when oil cost $30.30 a barrel, consumers paid $1,500 a year for gas.

If the price of oil jumps to $40 and stays there throughout 2003, average gasoline prices could jump to about $1.60 a gallon. Annual household gasoline expenditures could run as high as $2,000, assuming people don't curtail their driving.

For tips on how to get more miles from every gallon you pump, click here.

During the second half of 1998 and the first half of 1999, the winter heating season, consumers who used fuel oil paid about $1,600 to heat their homes. But that bill jumped to $2,300 during the winter of 2000 to 2001.

If the price of oil stays at $32 through the winter of 2003, and the winter temperatures in New England -- which has a disproportionate number of America's oil-heated homes -- are average, annual expenditures probably will probably be the same as those for the 2000-2001 winter, or about $2,300. If prices reach $40 a barrel and stay there, oil heating bills could run as high as $2,600.

Of course, that price could be even higher if the winter is unusually cold. For some guidelines on cutting your heating bill down to size, click here.

Electric bills could also be pushed up, though Larry Goldstein, president of the Petroleum Industry Research Association, predicted only a nominal increase in consumers' bills as fuel costs only account for a small part of generating costs.

Most U.S. households heat with natural gas, and would not be directly affected by an oil crunch. But they would still see higher heating bills this year because the price of natural gas has jumped about 40 percent in the past month, as production declines.

"Increasing oil prices directly affects consumers," said John Felmy, chief economist for the American Petroleum Institute. "There are increases in transportation and in the cost of all other goods and services that use oil for production -- from heating a factory to building a road."

One analysis, from the American Petroleum Institute, states that if crude oil rises by $5 a barrel and stays put -- say a jump to as high as $35 -- the Consumer Price Index, which reflects the change in prices of a basket of consumer goods, would rise by 0.3 percent.

And according to the CBO, non-energy-related prices would inflate faster if oil prices hit $40 a barrel and stayed there. That large, sustained price increase could in turn dampen overall consumer spending, hurting the economy.