Crude oil price today stands at around $90 with minor fluctuations on a day-to-day basis. The trading range has constantly remained between $80 and $93. It is no secret that the crude oil price has never been an indication of supply and demand. Crude oil has always been a scarce resource that has been tightly controlled by four Anglo-American conglomerates.

The international oil exchanges in London and New York, namely ICE and NYMEX, play a significant role in determining the oil prices today. There is another oil exchange in the gulf that has a considerable influence on the price namely the DME or the Dubai Mercantile Exchange.

The crude oil prices are determined through a non-transparent process. A couple of Investment bankers such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are the only ones privy to this information.

With the advent of unregulated international derivatives trading in oil futures over the last ten years or so, the crude oil price has reached speculative heights. It is old news now that the controls of oil no long rests with the apex gulf association in OPEC. The controls firmly rest with the Wall Street.

Traditionally, the US petroleum industry has always been highly regulated. In the post war era the crude oil price averaged around $26. The median price of crude oil during the post war era has been constantly around $19.6. It was in the year 2005 that OPEC decided to do away with its price band but could not control the oil price rise.

Post 1970 the crude oil prices started to surge. It touched a world average of $35.50 with the median crude oil price being $30.04. In the post Embargo period USA brought about a significant shift in their energy policy. They started subsidizing oil to its consumers making oil 50% cheaper than what was available in the world markets through imports.

In a quest for dominance the market was thrown into disarray. OPEC was never known as an effective controller of crude oil price. During 1980 - 86 it lost its dominance as the single biggest supplier of oil as a result of continually increasing prices of crude. The period that followed saw a significant price drop by OPEC to compete with the global prices.

The Gulf war that ensued surged the oil prices and gradually USA which had the mettle of money started taking control. The decline in the Russian production saw a better price correction of oil in favor of the US.

In 2000 OPEC started making cutbacks with its reservations to its members and in 2001 with the US economy considerably weakened it made considerable progress to reverse the trend. The 9/11 attacks changed the scene and crude oil price plummeted again.

After that Venezuela and Iraq had to cut back on their production capacities and the world inventory of oil came to a million barrels a day resulting in significant rise in crude oil price. Usually the level of inventory is the determinant of the forecast for crude oil prices. But this can be used only if spare capacity is not a problem.