On a macro level, supply and demand. Alternative sources that can deliver volume keep prices down. Oil is bouncing around $75 rather than way over $100. Is it coincidence that the Saudis have the Cartel price down around the minimum economic price for tar sands oil? Don't forget the premium speculators threw in for political instability in the Middle East.


The key elements in human thinking are not numbers but labels of fuzzy sets. -- L. Zadeh

Which explains a lot.