William wrote "What a conundrum eh? Increased militarization for the purpose of securing ever more scarce resources, creating yet more demand for said resources..."

That is one of the classic above-ground feed back loops that are likely to make effective peak come sooner and the down-slope steeper.

I used to think that speculation would be another one--as speculators realized that they were dealing with a declining resource, they would bid up oil, since it would be essentially guaranteed that it would always go up in price. But as we have seen, higher prices have finally succeeded in bringing on serious demand destruction, including recession and perhaps soon world wide depression.

The interaction between various feedback loops, positive as well as negative, is complex indeed, and very hard to predict.

$86.05

The Chinese are skipping gasoline imports for this month of October for a second month, because they've got a big chunk stockpiled just in case for the Olympics, and also due to the factory shutdowns.

If the Saudi's are supposed to be the swing producer, the Chinese could try being the swing consumer

82.60

Did it just freaking drop below $80 ?!

$79.65

Spooky.

All I can think of right now are 3 words :

Global. Economic. Collapse.

As soon as I post the above figure it is already outdated ...

Looking on the bright side, if oil continues to go down $5 every day, in about 14 days we should be looking at $0.00 oil.

Free crude oil! Imagine the possibilities!

When the companies which refine, transport, and distribute the oil and its products have failed it's not going to matter how cheap it is. This is all bad and Peak oil is going on the back burner for everyone but those who understand what all this means.

The markets are collapsing right in front of our eyes. Its exciting but not in a "good" way for me right now.

oil at 78.91 now.

Check out what Phil Flynn has to say about it:

http://www.321energy.com/reports/flynn/current.html

I think he may be right about the demand going down, but that's just because the financial system has collapsed.

Oil could cost $2 a barrel, but with nobody able to borrow money nobody's going to buy it.

It's getting interesting, that's for sure.

78.15 now.

$77.50, down nearly 11%. Approaching the $10 decline shutdown point, wow.

Gentlemen, some perspective please.

In the summer of 2007 the price peaked at $78.40 IIRC, which afterwards was seen as far too high. That's where we are now.

This could easily happen. The other possibility is that so many small and medium sized producers, distributers, etc... go out of business, that supply falls more sharply than demand. Prices could head back up, marginally, even in a deflationary blow off, and then shoot through the roof, in the inflationary long term. A lot depends on the strength of the dollar, too.

Cheap energy may turn out to be the biggest short term head fake out there. But 200.00 per barrel oil is highly unlikely, too, barring a true hyperinflation, where the cost of commodities triple or quadruple.

Consider this: if oil prices are higher during a financial meltdown than they were one year earlier when all was hunkey dorey, is this not an extremely strong sign that the supply situations is extremely tight?

$83.13

Lets watch the price skyrocket back upwards!

I am calling a bottom at $77.50. $110 before the end of the year... you heard it here first.