What are the reasons why crude prices have reached record highs?

Question

What are the reasons why crude prices have reached record highs?

Answer 1

The government wants you to believe that there is a severe shortage of oil.  Granted we do not have as much as we had fifty years ago but we have a decent domestic supply and we import a fairly large amount.  The first thing they did when we went into Iraq was take control of the oil fields so we are probably getting a decent price from them don't you think.

Answer 2

The US dollar has lost 60% of it's value and those who would be investing in wall street are putting there money in the futures market where they plan to make more profits by driving up the prices .

Answer 3

Oil Peak. Most oil is in The Middle East and countries which refuse to import as the citizens wish to keep control of oil.

Expensive wars the result. Electricity is less expensive or even street cars like those in SanFrancisco. At one time before WW2 and the advent of The Automobile street cars were put to use by people more often. Street Cars as in things with rods attached to wires above poles which moved something which whichhad the appearance of a small bus along as people sat on seats inside. Like in the movie Metro starring Eddie Murphy or in a movie called Speed with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock starring.

Answer 4

Here's a couple new reasons.

China is hoarding gas so they are assured of electricy etc for Olympics.

They are also consuming more gas, running so many generators in the earthquake regions.

Their purchases jumped 21 % since Jan.

US consumption is down.  Truck consumption is down.  Less goods being moved.  Small truck companies are closing.

So, you can see we can't control all of it.

Answer 5

At its roots, the answer is very simple. Aggregate (total) demand for crude is high and rising. Supply, on the other hand, is not keeping up. Prices, therefore, have risen. The complicated part is understanding why supply has not kept up. A few simple reasons are OPEC and the partial monopoly it has over crude supply, the high cost of increasing output (new drilling, water injection, etc), and the amount of time it takes between deciding to increase output and actually bringing the newly drilled oil supply to market.