When will the oil prices go down?

Second Tuesday of next week.When will the oil prices go down?
When people start taking this gas thing seriously, then oil prices will decrease. I decided to walk 2 miles to work twice a week, walk to the grocery store, anything to conserve gas. I refuse to be suckered into paying for a gallon of gas for $5.00. Due to high gas prices, food have gone up also, and it not going to stop at food. Please join me and conserve where you can, let's see how many barrels of oil we can leave in these big corporations' inventory. It will be so sad when the day come when we have to borrow gas money from family and friends and not be able to pay back the loan.When will the oil prices go down?
The oil prices were already low. Look at the prices in Europe... they were (and are) paying much more than what we pay. This is why cars are not as commonplace as in the states. It is more probable that we will be paying similar to the Europeans in the next few years. We are ALL feeling the hole in our wallets. This is one reason why it is important to focus on alternative energy sources for transportation (e.g., water, hydrogen powered, hybrids, electric, etc.).
The big picture answer would be ';When people stop using so much.';





It's all supply and demand. China and India are using more, the USA has not stopped driving hummers and SUV's, and all that costs power.





Not to mention hot weather causes more electricity which is not powered by electricity but by natural gas, which is what... oil based? Not sure how that works, but my electric company told me my electric bill went up because the cost of natural gas went up...





Don't know. Don't drive so much, get rid of the high performance vehicles and low mileage vehicles, and buy a motorcycle, scooter, bicycle......





Bush wants to drill in Alaska. Environmental lobbyists are keeping that from happening.





Wish I knew the answer.
Probably not for a long time player unless we are able to find some oil in Canada or Russia or alternative energy because less costly to use. I'm personally going to start riding my bike and carpooling more. I would also recommend using solar polar on your house if you have one.
Never. Unless some new super efficient and cheap source of energy is discovered and oil is no longer in demand, it will never go down dramatically because we are running out of a limited supply.
I'm very sorry to say that it will never happen. I wish that it would but, it's just not ever going to happen. That sucks big time. I just hate it. We could all use it. Everything is going up except wages.
When the president(be it Bush or whoever gets elected next) decides to move our troops out of the middle east and start drilling in Alaska.
When enough people quit using so much oil....probably never again.
When America starts to drill for oil in the north of Canada.
Whenever it feels like it.
ooooh about half past never? or february 30th, whichever comes first?
in the year 23258329852334 give or take a few millenia
Probably never
I dont know but I hope real real.. soon......
When there's none left.
I'll buy ';Never'; for ';500'; Bob.
Note the date on this report! American and European prices are out of date.





There is NO LIMIT on the price of oil. How much would a man who is dying of starvation pay for a loaf of bread?





May 29th 2008


From The Economist print edition


Not everybody is paying higher prices for oil


HALF of the world's population enjoys fuel subsidies.


This estimate, from Morgan Stanley, implies that almost a quarter of the world's petrol is sold at less than the market price.


The cheapest petrol is in Venezuela, at 5 cents per litre.


That makes China's pump price of 79 cents seem expensive, but even this is a bargain compared with $1.04 in the United States and $2.35 in Germany (see chart).


As the gap has widened between soaring international prices and fixed domestic prices, so has the cost of subsidies. Indeed, budgetary strains are now forcing some governments to lift prices.


On May 24th Indonesia raised fuel prices by around 30%. This was the first increase since 2005, but it still leaves petrol too cheap at 65 cents a litre.


Dearer oil is likely to push up inflation from 9% to 12%.


But without the increase, the government's subsidy bill was heading for an alarming 3% of GDP this year.


In the past week Taiwan has also raised petrol prices by 13% and Sri Lanka has lifted them by 24%.


Malaysia has one of the biggest fuel-subsidy bills in the world, estimated at as much as 7% of GDP this year.


By holding down the price of petrol, Malaysia now has the lowest inflation rate of all the 32 emerging economies tracked by The Economist.


But the government is expected to allow prices to rise soon to curb its widening budget deficit.


In theory, rising crude-oil prices should reduce global demand.


But if domestic prices are capped, then emerging economies will continue to guzzle oil, pushing world prices still higher.


Emerging economies accounted for more than the whole increase in world oil consumption last year鈥攂ecause demand in the rich economies fell.


But recent price increases will make little difference to global consumption unless China and India follow suit.


India's state-owned oil companies face mounting losses, as they are forced to sell fuel at fixed prices below cost.


Petrol prices are actually slightly higher in India than in the United States, because Indian motorists pay much higher fuel taxes, but diesel is about 40% cheaper than in America.


The oil firms are partly compensated by bonds which the government issues to them鈥攁 trick which allows the government to keep the subsidy off its books.


At today's prices, the total subsidy (including the full losses of oil companies) could be as much as 2-3% of GDP this year. Morgan Stanley estimates that the government's total budget deficit (central and state governments and all off-budget items) is running at 9% of GDP in this fiscal year.


The government must hold an election by May next year, so it is reluctant to raise fuel prices by much. It is thought to be considering a modest rise combined with a cut in excise duty.


In early 2008 Chinese motorists paid roughly the same for their petrol as Americans did.


Whereas the pump price in America has since jumped by 33%, Chinese prices have remained fixed, swelling the losses of state-owned refiners.


According to Dragonomics, a Beijing-based economic research firm, the retail price for diesel is about 40% below that in America.


To cut their losses, oil firms have reduced supply, causing shortages at some petrol stations.


However, China is less likely than other countries to lift prices soon.


Oil subsidies are estimated at less than 1% of GDP, and its budget surplus and small public debt mean that the government can afford to keep prices down for some time. Most likely, it will delay increasing fuel prices until food-price inflation has eased.


Across the emerging world, governments fear that lifting fuel prices will hurt the poor and so trigger social unrest.


Yet fuel subsidies are an inefficient way to protect the poor: they mainly benefit the richer owners of cars and air-conditioners, and favour energy- and capital-intensive industries, rather than those that create most jobs.


An IMF study of five emerging economies found that the richest 20% of households received, on average, 42% of total fuel subsidies; the bottom 20% received less than 10%. That money would be better spent on health, education and infrastructure. Not only would this benefit the poor, but higher prices would also help to dampen global oil consumption, and hence the price of oil.