Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Oil Approaching $100/barrel...

That's right. What was once a high of $147/barrel in mid-July, the price of a barrel of oil today on the open market is down to $103/barrel and is close to breaking below the $100 mark. If Hurricane Ike causes no major disruption in the Gulf, I'd expect the price to continue to drop even further.

As I've said before, there were two major forces affects the price of oil in recent years: speculators (see here) and OPEC & supplying nations unfriendly to the U.S. (see here).

Well, it seems that OPEC is trying to stave off the drop in oil prices by cutting off supply, while propping up Iran and Venezuela. Surprise, surprise, surprise.

On another note, if the July 11 price of oil was $147/barrel, with the national gas price at $4.11/gallon (and in my area of California is settled at $4.65/gallon), then given that the current price is now $103/barrel -- that's a reduction of 30% off of the high -- shouldn't that translate to $2.88/gallon nationally and $3.25/gallon for my area?

So, why is the national gas price still at $3.65/gallon? And why is the gas price in my area still $3.77/gallon?

Just wonderin'...

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