G8 Coming To Terms High Oil Price Is Unavoidable
If it weren’t sad, it would be funny. CNN today makes much of the $4 a gallon gas price. That’s about Euro 2,58, for 3,78 liters of gas or 68 eurocents a liter. Last time I filled the tank, it took E 1,58 for a liter or more than $9 US per gallon.
Get used to it, I’d say. Despite growing rumours about price speculation (fuelled by a steeper price hike in the past months), the underlying trend is undeniable. Nearly $140 a barrel simply is about 14 times the price of 1999. That’s a 1400% percent rise in 9 years. Dave Pollards posting about what a $160 dollar oil price per barrel would mean is becoming interesting again.
Meanwhile, the closing statement of the G8 did not contain a call upon OPEC to increase production (to push prices down) but instead talked about energy conservation and investing in alternative energy sources. It seems the G8 accepts high oil prices as a given at this stage, and rules out increase in production as a possibility.
The price of oil in the past few years:
August 2004: $44 (includes a graph back to ‘99 when oil was about $10 a barrel.)
October 2004: $55
December 2005 : $60
September 2007 : $80
June 2008: $139
This weblog is written by Ton Zijlstra (Enschede, Netherlands). I'm a knowledge management and change management consultant.
