World Economy: Price of Oil Drops

By: CaraTan   Date: 28 October 2008

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CaraTan

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Singapore, 28 Oct. While many of us are worried over impending recessions and uncertainty in the financial markets worldwide, we do have one thing to be happy about: Lower petrol prices.

In the US state of Ohio, prices have dropped below $2 per gallon. According to the Automobile Association of America, the Oil Price Information Service, and Wright Express, the average price per gallon in the US is $2.668. A month ago it was about a dollar more.

The cost of gasoline has dropped as oil plummets. On Monday, oil hit $62 per barrel, the lowest in more than 12 months, and 57% lower than the record $147.27 on 11 July, 2008. Concern in the markets of a serious worldwide economic slump has lowered demand for fuel.

The peak driving period in the US is the summer, and with that season behind us, demand will further fall and prices are expected to continue to drop. Oil trade and analyst Stephen Schork said that the US average could fall to as little as $2.25 within a few weeks.

He said, "We have to appreciate what extraordinary circumstances we're now dealing with. We've had a major correction in the price of crude oil, and that correction is having a knockout effect on gasoline prices. This great unraveling that we're seeing in all commodity prices is exaggerating the seasonality of this market."

The US Transportation Department released data which said that from November 2007 to August 2008, Americans drove more than 78 billion fewer miles than they did over the same period the previous year.

Americans aren’t’ the only ones changing their habits. As economic uncertainty prevails, economists predict consumption to drop by more than one million barrels per day. Currently, the world uses about 88 million per day. The Asian financial crisis 10 years ago cut consumption by a million a day as well.

Exacerbating the effects of lower demand is increased supply. US Gulf Coast production was lost due to Hurricane Gustav and Ike, but with this production coming back on, further declines are expected.

Just a few months ago, the price of oil and cost of gasoline was one of the main gripes consumers had worldwide. With the collapse of financial markets, freezing of credit, and lack of liquidity, lower petrol costs are a welcome sight in this turbulent market. Now consumers can at least have something to be thankful for – but it’s all at a cost of a further-deteriorating economic landscape on a global scale.

Hector Sim, EconomyWatch.com


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