Slide 2 of 14
Notes:
This graph shows the world oil price depicted as the average price refiners pay for imported oil. Since US refiners buy crude oil from so many different countries, it is an excellent proxy for a “world oil price”. It is similar to the OPEC basket price.
In real terms, prices are above the recent historical norm, but they are much higher than experienced just a year or two ago.
It’s the comparison to 1998-1999 that people focus on.
And of course, people don’t pay with “inflation adjusted dollars”. In nominal terms, prices have been higher only a few other times in history.
So let’s look at recent history in nominal dollars ...
