10 years ago they said that $10 per barrel was fair , what changed ?

kevin1 · 03-01-2006, 02:58 PM

The world situation in 1996 wasn't significantly different than what it is now , what has changed that justifies the current oil prices? There is currently a surplus of oil, why doesn't the price decline in line with the law of supply and demand ?

Sorry Aught , the link worked at the time I posted this , I removed it .
The world situation isn't that much different than it was in 1996 , why does oil cost 6 times as much ? The rise of the Chinese doesn't explain it , there's easily as much oil on the free market now as there was then . Why is oil so expensive now ?

Your thoughts ?

Aught Six · 03-01-2006, 03:09 PM

Demand wordwide (but particularly in India and China) has skyrocketed in the past 10 years. That's not the complete answer to your question, but it accounts for much of the price increases.

P.S. Fix that link!

IL Rancher · 03-01-2006, 04:31 PM

AGain, doesn't acount for all of it but what was the value of the dollar vs other foreign currencies at the time? I am not sure but the last I had heard the dollar has weakened significantly in the past 10 years. Maybe it is because fuel is so expensive they have to add a surcharge to the shipping of fuel

kevin1 · 03-01-2006, 04:46 PM

When you're the largest consumer of anything you're normally entitled to a discount over the other consumers . Why are we paying so much ? Granted , some other countries pay more , but thay all havehigher taxes on fuel than we do .

Totemkopf · 03-01-2006, 05:11 PM

Oil speculation.
With ever increasing demand for oil, plus the US policy of raising the oil reserves plus filling the depletion of thereserves from the 90's, oil speculation haspretty much been a surething, kind of like betting on if the sun will rise tommorrow.

Since we as consumers don't buy crude, you should really be questioning why gas was so high in the 90's. In 96 gas averaged about $1.30 a gallon with crude only costing $10 a barrel, now crude is $60 a barrel and we are only paying $2.20 a gallon. Boy we were being screwed back in the 90's.

James B · 03-01-2006, 06:17 PM

The greed level increased.

seadog · 03-02-2006, 06:10 PM

What James B said

DougMD · 03-04-2006, 03:06 PM

I just read where hydrogen cars may be sold within about 7 years, and that with output high, engine cost could go down. It can't happen soon enough for me!

BenGarrett · 03-04-2006, 08:19 PM

I think James hit the nail on the head.

Kevin, you realize that without modifications to your diesel engine, you can spend a little bit of money in an initial setup, then convince restaurants to give you their frying grease and make biodiesel fuel for around $3 for 20 gallons?