Gas Prices Gas in Flux:

Gas Prices

Gas in Flux: A Global Phenomenon

The United States has seen a rise in gasoline prices for the past several years, but this recent summer the prices reached a high point. The cause of this increase can be directly related to the increase in unrest in the Middle East, particularly in places such ahs Libya, Syria, Egypt, Tunisia, and Bahrain.

Ironically, in the past several months as the Arab Spring erupted, American oil was suddenly in higher demand than it has been in fifty years, causing prices to rise for American oil consumers who were now competing for the oil once destined only for American gasoline stations. The American public has had relatively cheap gas in comparison to Europe, but a feeling of anxiety has risen in the nation because of high gas prices in an already struggling economy. Now with the winter approaching, meaning fewer vehicles on the roads, and the troubles in the Middle East waning down, gas prices should return to reasonable prices. This up and down cycle is very different than the extremely cheap and stable gas prices of the Middle East, which is the overwhelmingly largest region for the export of oil.

Gas prices in the Middle East are remarkably less than they are in America, or other parts of the West. This is largely due to the large oil deposits found in much of the Middle East, but also to a feeling of self-pride and even nationalism when it comes to the cheap and plentiful supply of gasoline, even in non-major oil producing nations. The past six months however has been harsh for some of these oil-producing countries, such as Libya. Libya has been going through a civil war of sorts, a rebel force overthrowing the long-sitting dictator and his personal military. The oil production of this company was sidetracked in the war, and not only was Libya now not exporting oil, but it has been unable to supply its own cities with oil, with backups at gas stations miles long. This lack of oil was one of the most troubling signs to the population of Tripoli, which had been virtually shut off from the outside world for months, with a heightened anxiety from a lack of oil reaching civilian automobiles. The Middle East takes great pride in its oil production, and sometimes dictators overstep boundaries in order to claim that oil for themselves, as Saddam Hussein of Iraq attempted to do to Kuwait in 1991.

Kuwait is a particularly extreme example of cheap oil for all within the borders of Kuwait. This small nation just next to the Arabian Peninsula has massive reserves of oil beneath its sands. Oil merchants could potentially make great profits from selling gasoline at market prices in the Middle East and Kuwait, but the overwhelming attitude of oil is that it should be extremely cheap and plentiful always, so oil merchants do not even attempt to exploit the local population with higher gas prices.