What causes the phenomenon of high oil price from 50 odd per barrel to over USD146 in just a year?

Was it simply due to supply and demand or there is a hidden conspiracy?What causes the phenomenon of high oil price from 50 odd per barrel to over USD146 in just a year?
Demand hasn't doubled in a year. Supplies are about the same as last year.. I don't know what other options there are...What causes the phenomenon of high oil price from 50 odd per barrel to over USD146 in just a year?
Supply and demand was probably what started it, but the reason it climbed so high so fast is because of the weak dollar. That means that the dollar can't buy as much as it used to, so you need more dollars to buy the same stuff, like oil. As oil gets more expensive, almost everything else gets more expensive because it costs more to ship it. When prices go up, that's inflation, which makes the dollar even weaker, and the cycle continues. This positive feedback loop is the biggest cause. If it were evil speculators driving up the price, why didn't the price go up earlier?
As long as the Commodities Futures Modernization Act (Enron loophole) goes unchanged nothing anyone does will matter. You can drill your little hearts out and completely destroy the environment, but nothing will change as long as speculators are allowed to run amok.





Simply adding the words ';and energy'; to the Commodities Futures Modernization Act would bring gas prices down overnight.





80% of all known oil off the continental shelf of the United States have already been granted permits to drill, but those that would do the drilling are sitting on those permits. Ask yourself why.
Common sense will tell you it's not supply and demand. The numbers just ain't there.


Conspiracy? Not really. It's actually called ';greed';. They can get it, why shouldn't they? Why should they produce more? There's no reason for it. Increasing supply only reduces their profits and that doesn't make sense even to a conservative.


They pushed the market as far as they could to see just how much they could get. It's pretty simple after you peel back all the lies and rhetoric.


They can get $140/barrel right now. Why would they be stupid enough to produce more (work more) to lower the price? I guess you can call that a conspiracy.
It's greed, pure and simple.


I really don't think it's got much to do with supply and demand, as they claim. Over the last couple months, I have noticed a difference in the traffic flow, parking lots are empty, there are fewer cars on the highway, there's an abundance of large vehicles for sale along the roads, and this has not been reflected at the pump.


Most people can put 2+2 together. Bush has been a long-time oil man. His buddies are heavily invested in oil. Bush continues to stockpile supplies. He keeps telling us we're addicted to the stuff, while he skips around the globe at our expense, to visit Europe, and China. See the common denominator.
It has nothing to do with supply and demand and everything to do with speculation. There is a loophole that allows oil to be purchased on speculation without actually taking possession and only putting down a small percentage of the price.





This is leftover from the Enron scandal.
I think the wars and such gave them an excuse to raise prices, and when they realized people would pay, they just kept pushing the envelope. There isn't a shortage, so it is an illusion of supply and demand. There is a monopoly by Opec, and that is what is raising the prices.
because it can, US economy falling apart, high demand in other quickly growing parts of the world, like China.





Lots happened at the same time, ultimately you could link it to the greed that cause the housing crisis.
Disruption of supply coupled with increased demand. Get Israel and Iran to play nice, teach the Iraqis to share, and put the Nigerian militias on Ritalin, and everything will work out.
Deregulation and sweetheart deals for the oil companies, complements of the two oilmen we put in the White House. Now they can control oil futures, that is, the price per barrel of oil. Much like letting the fox watch the henhouse.
Its all a part of the Democrats plan to reduce consumption by increasing the price. Don't you remember that Pelosi said they had a plan and just after they took over in congress the oil prices started going up.
Yes, the main cause of the price increases is supply and demand.
wars, pirates and natural disasters create an illusion of short supply, causing an inflation in gas prices.
i am not aware of any hidden conspiracy or atleast ( we ) the general public were are kept in some secret therefore i would say supply and demand
I don't know, the Democrats claim we went into Iraq for oil. They have to be wrong on this don't you think. It's not working!!!!
PNAC.