THE $100 QUESTION: WHERE ARE OIL PRICES HEADED?

摘要

Looking back at 2010, it might come as a surprise to realize that the annual average price for a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil was the second highest on record, coming in at just under $80 (all prices are US$ per barrel). With the global economy still in recovery mode, as the U.S. continued to battle high unemployment levels and the European sovereign debt crisis lingered, WTI quietly averaged $78 for the first three quarters before surging above $90 in December. The question now becomes, where do we go from here?