One Year After Oil

A year ago this weekend, oil prices reached a trading record of $147.29 a barrel. That peak followed months of speculation that oil prices would zoom past $200 or $250 a barrel

Oil demand has dropped by nearly 1.5 million barrels a day since last year, and OPEC producers are now sitting on five or six millions of barrels of daily idle capacity. As the world confronted its worst economic crisis in over 50 years, oil fell to around $33 a barrel by December.

But prices remain as volatile as ever.

NY Times