Oil prices have been forced to their lowest price in the last four years thanks to unconventional drilling methods that uncovered much more oil and natural gas then analysts first predicted. This year marked the fifth straight year of increases in US oil reserves. Even though we have uncovered larg amounts of oil and gas the United States' oil reserves still only account for a fraction of the global oil reserves, venezula had the largest amount of oil reserves with 298.3 billion barrels last year. US oil and gas production, helped by a slow world economy and increasingly fuel efficient vehicles has been enough to drive down prices.
This is a great modern day example of supply and demand, in america before the civil war cotton was a crop that was in demand. Much like oil because of this high demand they produced large amounts of it in the south. It was highly profitable and easily managed after Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin.
http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2014/12/04/us-oil-reserves-hit-38-year-high
I have been noticing this drop in oil prices lately also. The drop in oil and natural gas prices has a noticing effects on all aspects of life; considering, most of the US is power by these fossil fuels. For example, when gas is cheaper so is food since the shipping to get it to grocery stores is less. Because of the decline in prices it could result in an increase in consumer spending.
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