may well be..i'llleave that to you guys.. point being...high will remain until the existing system is altered... i.e. increase capacity/output... until then speculation / manipulation will maintain it's effect.
Manipulation and speculation are two different things.
As for Capacity - we are past Peak Oil. We CANNOT increase Capacity/Output in a meaningful way. That's just the reality of it. There just aren't enough easily accessible reserves. And opeing up US Offshore for drilling does NOTHING to change the number of Deepwater rigs that are out there. Which means you are simply moving production around from one place to another. That's not an INCREASE.
OK so you open ANWR. it comes on line with production peaking IN TEN YEARS... given consumption growth curves, by the time it is online, demand has eaten up all of the growth there.
Again, NO APPRECIABLE GAIN...
That's the point of Peak Oil. The time and CAPITAL Cost of developing new resources means we basically are going to start lagging behind demand until we change energy sources. Its as simple as that.