[muleskinner]

Well, back before the Arabs formed OPEC, oil was $3.50 a barrel from the Middle -East and gas was between $.20 and $.25 /gallon.

The closer oil gets to the $20/barrel price, the better for Western economies. Anything below 20 is gravey. A quicker, bigger employment recovery around the corner.

Kudlow and Kramer had some oil expert on a few months back and he expects around $18/barrel.

[alnitak]

Well, you have to express in constant dollars to get any meaningful data. This PDF will show the trend. You need to go 11 pages in.

It's part of BP's annual energy review