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Oil Prices facts

While investigating facts about Oil Prices Today and Oil Prices Chart, I found out little known, but curios details like:

Most Italian extra virgin olive oil sold in stores is a fraud. Nearly 70% of cheaper olive oil is not from actual olives, but is cut with cheaper seed oil to lower the price, and much of the product doesn't even come from Italy.

how oil prices affect the economy?

Some trucks in North Korea are powered by burning charcoal because the price of oil is too high for most citizens.

What's oil prices?

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what are oil prices right now. Here are 41 of the best facts about Oil Prices News and Oil Prices Forecast I managed to collect.

what's oil prices today?

  1. A broker spent $520m in a drunken stupor and moved the global oil price.

  2. Russia is rapidly depleting its Reserve Fund and is expected to run out of cash in 2017. The fund contained $91.7 Billion at the end of 2014 and contained $32.2 Billion as of September, 2016. The drawdown is largely due to oil prices that continue to lag budgeted targets.

  3. Denmark, due to high prices from the 1973 oil crisis, had car free Sundays from November 1973 to February 1974, during which highways were used only by cyclists and roller skaters.

  4. One consequence of lower oil prices is that fewer plastics get recycled. Since plastics are petroleum based products, if oil prices fall low enough, it's cheaper for companies that might use recycled materials to just manufacture new plastics, and recyclables end up in landfills.

  5. In 2010 a sole investment broker was responsible for raising oil prices to an 8-month high in a drunken stupor he couldn't recall. He spent $520 million dollars of his employers' money in 30 minutes.

  6. Worldwide, barite is mostly used by the oil and gas industry and due to the high demand of oil and gas, the price of barium has increased over time.

  7. In 1866 oil producers in Pennsylvania agreed upon a standard measurement for sales. The 40 gallon whisky barrel was the most common sized used but they went with the 42 gallon English wine barrel instead. 150 years later crude oil is still priced and sold by the 42 gallon barrel.

  8. In 1979 the price of oil more than doubled because people dramatically over reacted to a 4% reduction in oil production caused by the Iranian revolution. US law capped oil prices at $6 A BARREL, but companies raised the price of gas as if they were paying the international prices instead.

  9. In the face of public health concerns in 1990, McDonald's switched from cooking their french fries in beef tallow to cooking them in vegetable oil. Strong public distaste for the new taste of the fries resulted in McDonald's stock price falling.

  10. An oil trader who went into his office and bought 7 million barrels of crude oil while blackout drunk, the volume of the trade caused the price of Brennt oil to rise sharply for a short moment.

oil prices facts
What are negative oil prices?

Oil Prices data charts

For your convenience take a look at Oil Prices figures with stats and charts presented as graphic.

oil prices fact data chart about Oil Rent in the Middle East from 2011-2017, charted against
Oil Rent in the Middle East from 2011-2017, charted against World Oil Prices

oil prices fact data chart about Percentage change over time of Crude oil prices and Petrobra
Percentage change over time of Crude oil prices and Petrobras stocks

Why oil prices are going down?

You can easily fact check why oil prices dropped by examining the linked well-known sources.

The 1973 oil embargo had little to no effect on oil prices. Instead, it was the peak production few years earlier. The embargo served as a coverup for this peak production. - source

In 2011 during the Saudi protests, when news broke that Saudi Arabian police fired shots to break up a protest, oil prices soared $3 in just 12 minutes. - source

Shell Oil had begun oil exploration in the area after bidding for rights but ended its exploration due to cost and the drop in oil prices.

The labor price of light has declined dramatically. For 1000 lumen-hours of light, it would take 58hrs to collect enough wood. Other fuels? Sesame lamp (1750bc): 41.5hrs. Whale oil lamp (1815-45): 4.9hrs. Gas lamp (1800s): .23hrs. A fluorescent bulb? .000119 hours or .684 sec of labor. - source

When oil prices will go up?

Crude oil has a different price depending on the stock exchange quoted as there are different varieties of oil you can trade: Brent, Dubai, West Texas. So news about prices tend to be biased if they want to show a low or a high price

How oil prices are determined?

Several months ago, with Venezuela's economy in shambles due to fallen oil prices, condoms cost as much as an iPhone, with a 36-pack of Trojans costing about $750 online. Supermarkets had to be occupied by the national guard to ensure that shoppers could buy enough sugar.

Plans for a Superman theme park in Metropolis, a town of about 7,000 in southern Illinois, were shelved after the 1973 OPEC oil embargo drove up gasoline prices, crippling the U.S. travel industry. Plans called for a Bizarro Playground, a Voyage to Krypton ride and a skating rink.

Oil prices were pretty flat from 1946 to 1974. They started spiking rapidly only from 74.

A planned Superman theme park in the southern Illinois town of Metropolis was scrapped after the 1973 OPEC oil embargo drove up gasoline prices, greatly impacting tourism nationwide. The park would have included for a Bizarro Playground, a Voyage to Krypton ride and a skating rink.

Oil prices infographics

Beautiful visual representation of Oil Prices numbers and stats to get perspecive of the whole story.

oil prices fact infographic about Annual Average price of crude oil in the US shown with party

Annual Average price of crude oil in the US shown with party of the US president


When oil prices drop?

In 2006 Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez pitched a longterm lock in the price of oil at $50 a barrel

Crude oil price (inflation adjusted to 2015) was the lowest in December 1998. It was only $12.45.

A binge-drinking broker pushed oil prices to 8-month high during black out

In 2005 the CEOs of major oil companies were not required to testify under oath about the rising gas prices and their companies' record breaking profits.

The main reason why oil prices have been falling is that there is less demand for it in countries like Libya and Iraq

How oil prices impact the economy?

Despite the world drop in oil prices, Norway's government has a fund of surplus petroleum income, valued at 200% of its GDP

Following sanctions applied to Russia, Russia retaliated with a ban on food imports. The ban, in combination with low oil prices, resulted in 26% higher consumer costs, and 10% increase in food price after just 3 months. One result is that Russians have once again begun to smuggle food from EU.

In 1973 crude oil traded under $4 a barrel, a decades earlier in 1963 the market price was under $3 a barrel.

High oil prices consistently make oil-exporting countries more aggressive toward their immediate neighbors

Yahoo’s Messenger has for almost 18 years been the default communication tool for the oil industry around the planet. Daily deals are pitched, contracts negotiated and global price benchmarks assessed on the chat service

During the height of the fracking oil boom last year, the remote town of Williston, ND (pop 30k-40k) had about 12 men for every woman and the highest housing rental prices in the country with 700-square-foot, one-bedroom apartments costing over $2000/mo.

Oil prices are the same as 2009 yet per gallon is $1 more

The price of gasoline is always ~ $ 1 higher than the price of oil (US prices per gallon, adjusted for inflation).

ISIS is selling 40 million dollars of oil a month in the black market at a discounted price of $20 per barrel

When oil prices collapsed in the 1990s the economy soared. Everybody was happy except oil companies. In 1998 George H. W. Bush visited Saudi Arabia. 2 months later the Saudis led a massive OPEC price increase, causing an economic crisis that helped his son, George W. Bush, get elected in 2000.

About American oil stockpiles located in caves beneath the states of Texas and Louisiana, something which could help oil prices if the Saudi oil crisis worsens.

There is a central hub in the United States where crude oil trading and storage take place. The price of oil and gasoline are dictated by the supply and demand that moves through this central hub.

Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world, and before deciding to raise gas prices this week, a gallon of gas cost .08 cents.

This is our collection of basic interesting facts about Oil Prices. The fact lists are intended for research in school, for college students or just to feed your brain with new realities. Possible use cases are in quizzes, differences, riddles, homework facts legend, cover facts, and many more. Whatever your case, learn the truth of the matter why is Oil Prices so important!

Editor Veselin Nedev Editor