From 2010 until the end of 2014 oil prices remained relatively constant. With very little fluctuation over these four years, the average price per barrel of oil was around 110 dollars. That price has been more than cut in half within the past year. The price for United States crude oil is now just 48 dollars a barrel, the lowest it has been since 2009 (BBC News). So what is the cause for this sudden change and to what effect will this have on the United States’ economy as well as the global economy? There are three core contributors that account for this sudden dip in oil prices. These contributors are a low demand for oil in many countries, specifically Europe, that is caused by a lack of economic growth, the increase in The United States’ oil production, and The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) increase in oil production. With many of Europe’s economically struggling countries the increase in production of oil which in return yields lower prices has benefitted them. Europe’s weak economy is able to contribute to this drop in oil prices in that Europe’s currently low inflation rate and weak economy has greatly lessened the demand for oil. The lack of demand for oil in one of the most prominent import continents in the world has forced oil manufactures to lower their prices in order to retain Europe as a top oil export. Large oil exporters do not want to lose Europe as an export because that would also mean losing billions of dollars per year.
Another cause for the decline in oil prices is caused by an increase in consumers purchasing more fuel efficient vehicles, such as hybrid or electric vehicles. In many countries today, especially in North America, there has been an increased demand for fuel efficient vehicles. This is evident in TV commercials which are advertising more and more vehicles that get 40 to 50 miles per gallon, and by the ever increasing commercials for electric vehicles. Consumers are tired of paying outrageous prices for oil and are demanding more for their money. As this demand continues to grow, the demand for oil will decrease.
The reason of the fall in oil prices are the constant change of demand. The need for the oil is actually stagnant. Crude oil is becoming a product of the past. Today, you can harvest energy from solar, wind, water, heat, and waves. According to The Economist, “The use of fossil fuels in the rich world is mostly falling. Emerging economies are not currently taking up the slack”.
The consumption of the oil cause changes in the supply and demand. The United States produces 11 million barrels of oil every day. We are one of the biggest countries to have a big influence on the production and prices of the oil. The basic supply and demand theory explains that the if a product is produced more, the cheaper it should sell. If a country were to double the output of oil day, prices would fall and the Production is high, but the distribution of oil isn’t keeping up with the market. The United States builds an average of one oil refinery per 10 years. This is a net loss due to the fact construction has slowed down since 1970s. Since 1970s, the United States has 8 less oil refineries today. The reason why we are not oversupplied with cheap oil is because of the other countries’ higher net margin and the only operate at 62% of their capacity. Excess capacity is only there to meet future demand. With demand moving accordingly, oil prices will continue to be set mostly by the market — despite external players’ best efforts. (McFarlane)
High oil price for last few years drove the energy industry to come up with a new technological innovation and the result is a new drilling technique like hydraulic fracturing. This new technology made drilling easy in North Dakota and Texas (Timiraos, 2014). With more oil drilled domestically, U.S became net energy exporter instead of an importer. Also falling demand due to energy conservation, more efficient cars, less demand in China and OPEC opted against cutting production levels made the price go down. When Global economic growth was slowing and most economists agree that both supply and demand played role in the last year oil price plunge. Driven by the increased supply, oil price dropped from $82 to $50 between Oct'14 and Jan'15. The IMF summarizes 58% of the drop in oil price to supply and only 42% to demand.
Several oil-countries have been facing economic and political turbulence as a result of the crash in oil prices, and there is disagreement among OPEC as how to handle the situation. (Krauss) While this is happening, America’s oil production continues to rise, as it inches closer to becoming an energy superpower in production and consumption; and countries that depend on their oil exports face recession.
The consensus from the 1970s and 1980s was that there was an inverse relationship between oil prices and real economic activities. This belief later changed when the oil price crash of the mid-1980s failed to boost economic growth. Researchers then believed that increasing oil prices negatively affect the economy whereas falling oil prices have very little impact and by the 1990s this impact was assumed to be minimal (DePratto, de Resende and Maier 2009). More recently, researchers have found that increases in the oil prices adversely affect the economy whereas the impact of a decline in oil prices on GDP growth is only negligible (Jimenez-Rodriguez and Sanchez
The United States consumes more than 25% of the world’s petroleum products which is a large percentage, considering only 3% of the world’s oil reserves are produced by the United States. Given the demand for petroleum products such as gasoline, understanding why Crude oil prices have skyrocketed in recent years, is not hard. According to the article “Ending America’s Oil Addiction,” the surge in crude oil prices can be reduced in large part to the simple concepts of supply and demand. (Cooper, 2008)
The U.S. was supposed to be the world’s new swing oil producer, able to nimbly open and close the taps in response to market forces, thanks to its bounty of shale fields.” In the past a barrel of oil has been one hundred dollars, recently it has dropped to thirty dollars. Though some wells can be profitable at low prices it puts a serious strain on the oil industry as explained in this article.
Gas prices have been decreasing in some states according to my research on google. Since there has been more oil found, we have more of a supply which means that the prices of gas will drop due to supply and demand. Now that we have more oil for gas, the supply has increased which means that even though demand is high, the prices are lower because we have that supply. It has been the lowest in years, dropping from about four dollars a gallon to about three and and a half. Even though this may seem like it isn’t important to the economy, it is because now more people can afford it so more money for the economy to make from its
The global price of oil has stooped to dramatically low prices as the demand for oil has died and oil companies are trying to get the demand for oil to raise and stimulate the oil trade. If the oil trade gets stimulated then the price of oil will rise making the supply higher than the demand and making more money for oil
Global economy is the economy of the world, and is the international shipping of items and goods. Everyone in the world impacts and effects the global economy, whether you are aware or not. We, as students, can connect and impact the global economy through the things we buy and own by purchasing more items that were made in the United States.
From 2010 until mid-2014, world oil prices was fairly stable and their costs was oscillating at around $110 per barrel. The situation changed rapidly in June 2014 when prices have more than halved. At the moment, Brent crude oil has now fell below $50 a barrel for the first time since May 2009 and US crude is down to below $48 a barrel.
1. Oil prices are almost entirely driven by supply and demand. On the supply side, OPEC seeks to control the prices by virtue of controlling the output of its member countries, which are responsible for around one-third of the world's oil production (OPEC, 2012). That OPEC can do this is facilitated by the fact that bringing new oil production online takes a long time. Thus, by setting output on a monthly basis, OPEC can control the supply. OPEC's actions have a strong influence on prices because demand is largely predictable and incremental. The demand this month will be related to the demand next month, since oil demand tends to be for usage of a recurring nature.
According to Domm (2013), the author of the first article, apart from the unrest in Egypt, several other factors such as a plunge in the inventories of domestic crude oil could drive up demand and in the end trigger an increase in the price of gas. In the opinion of the author, although the problems facing Egypt (and Libya) have affected supply
The US oil companies would have us believe it has to do with the Middle East oil producing nations cutting back on production, therefore raising the price. The energy traders at the New York Stock Exchange shrug it off to supply and demand. Many theorize that America has billions of surplus barrels of oil. I believe it is pure greed from these entities. With so many Americans struggling