Oil's price plunges below US$120 per barrel

"They still have expensive gas to feed into the system, so they're reluctant to drop prices," said Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates in Galena, Ill. "Prices never come down as fast as they go up."

So true, if a hurricane so much as sneezes the wrong way prices skyrocket.

But the price of crude drops? Gas prices fall little if at all.

Go figure.

that's too funny...gas went from 1.39 last night to 1.45 this morning...

greedy bastards!!!

oh wait, it's a long weekend...never mind...

God, just after 9/11 driving east of Houston, Texas I could get gas for as cheap as $0.98 a gallon.

Now, it's upwards of $3.

I thought this Iraq war was for OIL as the Liberals claim. If it was, why is the dam oil still so costly.

In order to control the price of something like oil you have to control supply. There is plenty of oil out there but it is capped. The more that is capped under raps and the less that is readily accessible the easier it is to price fix, or have you never played monopoly before?

opec they are to blame.

The price you are paying now is when oil peaked at $145. You'll see major declines in price a month from now.

The price of oil actually has a lot more to do with speculation, politics and weather. The usual supply and demand economics don't really work here, which is probably a really dangerous thing for the market to be ignoring. We live in casino stock market times.

The reason why oil is so expensive is because most of the West's energy supplies come from high priced (at least in comparison to the Middle East) production zones. Saudi Arabia can get a barrel of oil for about $4, while in most places in the West (Alberta, Texas, North Sea), the cost is considerably higher. Add to that the declining volumes of production and supply is shrinking. Therefore, like any good business, the oil companies pass the cost of production onto you, the consumer.

By invading Iraq, the USA actually decreased the oil supply by about 3 million barrels a day (which was roughly what it was producing under UN sanctions with Saddam). That meant less supply and therefore higher prices. If and when, Iraq ever gets back to exporting all 3 million barrels a day, then prices might drop again.

Read "The End of Oil" by Paul Roberts and you'll understand why oil/gas costs so much.

It also has a lot to do with the fact that traders are playing horse race with the prices. They think the price will go up, and then it magically does because they speculated that it would.

Nicely stated.

i hope it does some good...but GREEN energy is the future's key to renewable sources

Nicely stated.

hhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

It also has a lot to do with the fact that traders are playing horse race with the prices. They think the price will go up, and then it magically does because they speculated that it would.

Speculators do influence the price, but they are not the sole factor influencing prices. Taking Iraq's 3 million bpd off the market had a huge effect, as does Bush constantly saying he will attack Tehran if they don't stop enriching uranium. Seasonal demand (people driving all across North America) is yet another. Tack on refinery shutdowns, natural disasters, decling productivity in Western oil fields, and voila, we have high oil prices.

Blaming the speculators entirely for high gas prices is the same as the Nazis blaming the Jews for losing World War One.