Gasoline price hikes always come as something of a shock in the Gulf, where many countries are pretty much floating on oil and consumers expect to pay very little at the pump.

Saudi Arabia is the world’s leading producer of oil and gas prices there have always been cheap — about 59 cents a gallon, according to the globalpetrolprices.com site. It is 79 cents a gallon in Kuwait, $1.01 in Qatar.

At the moment, UAE prices are $1.77 a gallon, which some consumers here already thought was high.

Prices are going higher, the energy minister said today, up 44 cents a gallon to $2.21 a gallon on August 1 — a 24.9 percent increase.

Gas at $2.21 a gallon would seem like an incredible bargain in the U.S., where prices are hovering around $3. Let alone in Europe, where $6-a-gallon gas is fairly standard.

Prices of fuel are to be set monthly in the UAE “based on a global index”, the energy minister said. Which means prices here will rise if they rise globally but also decrease if the global index declines.

It is fair to say consumers have been paying close attention to what was going to happen with gas prices.

Like the U.S., the UAE loves its cars, usually the bigger the better. Enormous SUVs, notable gas-hogs, are the preferred vehicle here, and a sign of status.

But to fill a 30-gallon tank, beginning August 1, consumers will have to pay an extra $13.20, for a total of $66.30 — if my arithmetic converting liters to gallons and UAE dirhams to dollars is correct.

The price hike will have two beneficial effects, from the standpoint of the government.

It will increase income from oil revenues. And the higher price could help nudge UAE consumers to consider more fuel-efficient cars, as The National notes.

Perhaps a Prius or two might even appear on the roads here … though they may be hard to see among the fleets of SUVs.