What’s pushing oil prices higher?

7 reasons why crude has soared to record levels this week

With oil prices rocketing higher, Gary in California wants to know why analysts don’t focus more heavily on the war in Iraq when they explain the price rise. The drop in Iraqi production since the war started certainly hasn’t helped. But there are a lot of other forces driving oil prices higher. Here are seven to keep an eye on.

Is there a black hole in analyzing high oil prices? Why do we never mention the three-year war in Iraq? It seems just unbelievable that this is consistently ignored, while something entirely similar, for example, Venezuelan production, gets widely reported as having a specific effect on U.S. prices. Is it too much to ask that this gets talked about? Or is it just a politically loaded issue?
– Gary G., Granite Bay, Calif.

The Iraq war has certainly been a factor in the run-up in oil prices, but there are others on the list that are probably more critical. Here