Oil prices have been on a wild ride for the past few years. In inflation-adjusted dollars, the annual average price went from $31 (€25) in 2002 to nearly $76 in 2007, $104 in 2008, $61 in 2009, $96 in 2013, and way back down to $37 in 2016. These numbers beg the question: What drives oil prices? It turns out that several factors have historically driven oil prices. These include production costs, geopolitical risk (wars or the threat of wars in oil-rich regions), and mismatches in supply and demand. Sometimes mismatches are caused deliberately, for example, when a cartel of producers gets together to cut back crude oil production in order to drive prices up. Two new price-forming variables in play Now, however, two additional factors have emerged that will have a profound impact on oil prices in the future: Improvements in technology are lowering the cost of shale oil production in the US and elsewhere, and electric vehicles (EVs) are emerging as viable substitutes for cars powered by internal combustion engines. To put some numbers on the impact of these factors on oil prices, DW spoke to Jim Williams, an oil industry data analyst and consultant who has tracked… Read full this story
- The Econocracy review – how three students caused a global crisis in economics
- NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian pledges an extra $1 billion to help fire-ravaged state rebuild
- Counting the cost of a catastrophe: 25 dead, thousands of homes lost and 7 million hectares burned out as fires raging across Australia could wipe $13BILLION off the economy
- In the face of a bushfire catastrophe, our national conversation is still run by politics
- Kowtowing to China’s despots is morally wrong and makes no economic sense
- Nigeria 4th most at risk country for humanitarian catastrophe ― IRC
- Nigeria is 4th most at risk country for humanitarian catastrophe in 2020 — IRC
- Why proposed single currency for East Africa could be doomed
- Australia strengthens bushfire defenses as economic, environmental costs mount
- Trump’s Syria Withdrawal Is a Mistake We’re Doomed to Repeat
Are petro states doomed to economic catastrophe? have 315 words, post on www.dw.com at April 4, 2018. This is cached page on Vietnam Colors. If you want remove this page, please contact us.