Via Naked Capitalism, here's an Oppenheimer analyst on why oil prices will continue to fall:

Given the bleak global economic outlook, we think world oil demand is likely to be substantially below current forecasts, as we expect steeper declines in developed countries and much smaller growth in developing countries. Despite the pullback from the $148/b record, we believe oil prices are still inflated and not supported by supply and demand, and the longer they remain high the deeper the recession is likely to be and the longer it will take for the global economy to recover. Lower oil prices could help boost consumer confidence and spending and accelerate economic recovery, which is also in the best interests of OPEC longer term.

The price has been hyped, but the world-wide downturn will undo the hype.

A Merrill Lynch analyst has predicted that oil will hit $50 a barrel next year.

There are folks, however, working to keep it high, including Venezuala and Iran, both advocate production cuts. Fun fact that I did not know, Venezualan oil is heavy and needs more refinement and so is only worth the effort if oil prices are high. Otherwise, Hugo just has black sludge to sell you.

I only fill up about every 3 weeks. (I'm in north central WA State).

For about 10 years we were always 10-15 cents above the national average (all our gas is trucked in), but since Katrina we've been below the national average. Maybe that's changing again.

on why oil prices are falling. Maybe it's in the spam filter, although I don't think it used any bad words. Argh.

Shorter post: analysts seem to agree that with growth slowing down not only here, but in China, etc., oil will decrease in price, especially since the price was artificially inflated by Wall Street hype. Of course, others (Venezuala and Iran) are advocating cuts in production to try to keep it high.

We can admit that we're killers ... but we're not going to kill today. That's all it takes! Knowing that we're not going to kill today! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0

The Bush buddies have been hoarding oil for the past several years. They're cornered the market to a large extent. Now that an election is coming up, they can afford to let the price drop so people don't feel it so much just before the election.
Come together at The Confluence

the oil market and I think there's a lot of solid information out there to prove it.

I love this job!

Small gas war in my little community, just off I-80 in Northern NJ.

Shell has recently taken the initiative in being lowest from the Gulf station and went to $2.99 on Wednesday, maybe prior to that.

Next town. Heating oil's taking longer.
Food prices are not coming down here yet.

I'll say it again (no time to get link right now)--I predicted this before the election.

And a better situation in Iraq--did anyone see the story about walls coming down and more peace there?

Just outside of Seattle.

I remember gas prices declining in the lead up to the 2006 elections then going up right after.

With recession fears, the global demand has dropped while output has remainded above demand levels. OPEC is meeting mid-November to discuss cutting supply again.

An $80/barrel price is where future exploration is supported. This is because of where drilling companies have to go to get the oil, i.e. unstable countries, deeper waters, etc. When the price per barrel falls down to the $70 range, new production will halt. (And you can bet spending on alternatives will halt too) The price will remain low until there is a shock to the system or the economy strengthens which will cause oil once again to spike above $100.

$3.20. I paid $3.60 one week ago. Someone tried to tell me yesterday the decrease is to to lower consumption. Hmmmm.

I read in East Tenn. it's $2.77. $3.01 in Jackson. Dallas is seeing it drop to the $3.00 level soon following Ft. Worth which is already there.

"In Toledo, it's $2.78 at competetive intersections and runs to $2.99 along I75. Cleveland (yesterday) was at $2.81. I paid $3.18 only 4 days ago; it's dropping fast."

Try looking at the Euro rate rise in conjunction with the rise of crude. Then note the fall of each started about the same date. One Monday in July had the president speak out about speculators and the guy regulating commodities saying he's going to crack down in those people buying oil and not having oily hands, meaning you better be buying to refine and not hedge the dollar. Maybe we can pin this on the EUC guy that didn't cut the prime rate on the Euro in conjunction with Bernanke when he made that rate cut in May? That's what brought us to where we are today with the world wide credit mess. Fighting inflation when the keys said value deflation was the real enemy.

But, who knows, had the EUC guy followed Bernanke in May, maybe it would have just postponed this a few months or years?