Oil prices likely stable in 2015

摘要

It's no secret that the U.S. consumes more petroleum than any other nation, and it's not hard to see why. A high standard of living, a big country, and a dispersed population are the main reasons that many of us can afford a car and drive a lot. Our culture's unending love affair with horsepower is another factor. It would be a stretch to say that the automobile was destined to use petroleum-derived fuels, but that said, it's an interesting historical coincidence that the four-stroke engine was developed in Germany around the same time the first commercially successful oil well was drilled in the U.S. Nikolaus Otto developed the Otto cycle engine in 1876, just a few years after Edwin Drake drilled the first viable well, one lined with a pipe, inTitusville, Pa., in 1859.