Energy - longer term picture



Crude oil 1861-2002

(Note the early '80s peak of over $80 when inflation is taken into account)

Source:British Petroleum

There were two OPEC official price hikes in the '70s, October 20th 1973 about two weeks after the Yom Kippur war started when it went from about $8.80 per barrel to $13.54, and the second in January 1974 when it increased to $38.07 per barrel. Those prices were for "Saudi light" and were not necessarily the actual selling or world price. Using the January 1974 CPI value of 46.6 and the January 2005 CPI value of 190.7, that $38.07 price translates to $155.80 per barrel today (and yes, for those of you that know about it, we're "supposed to" use the GDP deflator but in our opinion it's significantly less accurate than the CPI). A barrel is 42 gallons.


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