In the 1980’s and 1990’s, gasoline prices in the United States were at all-time lows because of new discoveries of large oil supplies in the Middle East and other regions and because of a relatively small demand for those large excess supplies of oil. In the last decade, however, the sharp rise in demand for petroleum products, especially in China, has created a dire situation where demand has put a strain on existing supplies, forcing oil companies to inflate the price of oil per barrel, reaching all-time highs. Because the world’s crude oil supplies serve as …
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