The gas prices went down last year because consumption went down. Due to unemployment, and companies lowering fleet usage, or just shut down, less gas was burned. People sold their Hummers and downsized. Even Opec could control the price. They reduced output with the intent on lowering global reserves. As we are now entering into a slight upturn in employment and companies are starting to recover, consumption will increase. So will the price. Oil prices plummeted from a mid-2008 high of roughly $147 per barrel to the mid-$30s on the back of the global meltdown. Since then Opec has pushed to boost member compliance with production targets, that have been eroding as prices rebounded to the $80 per barrel range.

Changes are happening.

Chevron estimated the 300-square-mile region where its test well sits could hold between 3 billion and 15 billion barrels of oil and natural gas liquids beneath the Gulf of Mexico that could boost the nation’s reserves by more than 50 percent.

In the United States, one of the world’s largest consumer of crude, oil inventories climbed last week by 6.5 million barrels, according to figures released Wednesday by the American Petroleum Institute.

David Fyfe, head of the IEA’s oil industry and markets division, says price controls and subsidies as well as economic stimulus packages in China and elsewhere, will help prop up oil demand short-term, but longer-term the trend is downwards. “Globally speaking, oil intensity has been declining by around 2 per cent annually over the past decade,” Fyfe said.

Rising efficiency, conservation and substitution are steadily reducing the amount of oil needed to fuel an increase in the goods and services produced around the world.

We don’t need to drill more. Just using less will keep prices down.