Thursday, May 21, 2009

Price of oil

Thanks to Wiki for the image.

It is a bottle of oil in case you can't figure it out. My brother has a bottle of oil like this but I didn't have an image of that one so I thought I'd use this one from Wiki since it was reasonably easy to get.

I came to live with my Mom and Dad in November, 1998 even though I did not know then that I had moved.

Funny that sometimes we've moved on and don't even realize it until later.

Yesterday, May 20, 2009, the price of oil at about 11 a.m. central time according to CNBC was nearly $62 per barrel.

I've read various predictions about the future price of oil. Some prognosticators wrote that it would fall to $25 per barrel or maybe lower. Some think it will go back above $100 per barrel and maybe even $200 or higher.

Anyone want to guess what it was in December, 1998?

I'll tell you: $8.64 per barrel.

That's according to this site.

If you distrust that then here's a link to the Energy Information Administration of the United States page: Weekly United States Spot Price FOB Weighted by Estimated Import Volume (Dollars per Barrel). The number is a little different but close enough I guess.

What's the point of this post?

Well, recently there's been a lot of concern over our local economy in the event the price of oil plummets downward. When I heard the concern I thought I remembered that oil was at a really low price when I returned to Oklahoma but I had to look it up.

I guess it is one of those perspective things.

3 comments:

~Betsy said...

I'm listening to the news as I write this. The Fed has released new forecasts for the jobless claims and they aren't pretty. They are also saying the shrink in the economy will be far greater than they had predicted. I don't know what it's going to take for our country to wake up. We need to use our own oil (drill here, drill now). It will help this economy more than people realize.

Lori1955 said...

I read an article yesterday saying that the only way they could successfully change the auto industry and force people to buy hybrids is if the price of oil goes up. That statement really bothered me. Somehow it made me feel like they wanted us to go broke buying gas so we would be forced to do what they wanted.

I agree with Betsy, drill here, drill now.

dave said...

My perspective is quite different, but I'll let it go at that.