Amun wrote:
....
Sad fact is that the price of oil is decided by a few people in some offices
and has very little to do with supply and demand.

The actual facts are that oil prices are set on the open markets and
currently are mostly controlled by two factors--increased demand
markedly influenced by rapid growth/exapnsion in China and India and the
rest of SE Asia and speculation based on current events and
inflexibility in both the producing a supply side. The latter effect is
readily observable simply by paying attention to the high correlation in
prices to world events and even things as small as threat of loss of
production owing to such events as hurricanes in the Gulf. While in
theory the loss of gasoline refinery capacity for a short time shouldn't
matter (in fact, should reduce demand for crude), it can be noted that
in the present speculative mode crude also tends to rise rather than
fall.

The price of crude oil is set by movements on the three major
international petroleum exchanges--

- New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX, http://www.nymex.com)
- International Petroleum Exchange in London (IPE,
http://www.ipe.uk.com)
- Singapore International Monetary Exchange (SIMEX,
http://www.simex.com.sg).

My best guess is they throw a dart and where it lands is the price of oil
this week. LOL

The Bush family IS in oil, and with no chance to be re-elected after a
second term anyway, guess who's going to make sure he has a nice "retirement
package" set up after the next election.

The significance of the Bush family in the global oil markets is
absolutely inconsequential. They're nickel and dime players even in the
US. (Not that I wouldn't like a few of the nickels and dimes, but
reality is they just are not a sizable factor in the overall oil
business).

So don't hold your breath that the "powers that be" will do anything other
than provide lip service.

The problem is that your omnipotent "powers that be" simply aren't...the
primary problem in the US continues to be the stranglehold on expansion
of domestic production (including exploration but primarily refining
capacity) owing mostly to environmental regulation and the "not in my
backyard" siting problems.

At best,....as winter approaches they "may" subsidize heating oil and
natural gas, to keep people from rioting in the streets to stay warm.

There's another problem of unintended consequences--the tightness of
supplies of natural gas is largely owing to the high conversion to gas
for producing electricity in order to reduce coal usage. This was one
of Al Gore's brilliant ideas (actually I doubt if it was Al's idea, I
don't think he's ever had one, but it was a strategy he was a major
proponent for)...