The question that springs to mind is why the price went so high in the first place.

Traditional Economics states that the markets set a price at the point where supply equals demand, if supply falls or demand increases then the price rises, and vice versa.

So what really happened in the early summer of this year, what were the real true physical factors driving the price increases, or was it purely an example of investor speculation.

It we get back in out time machines and travel back a year, then what the forecasters saw for oil consumption was a continued growing demand, both nothing particularly out of the ordinary.

What really happened in 2008? 

There were no invasions of oil producing countries, China continued at the begining of the year to increase it's demand, but again, nothing that wasn't particularly unforseeable, the US dollar was strong, but again, it had been for most of the year before.  There was continued political and military uncertainty in Nigeria, but again, nothing drastically different from that of previous years, or what was anticipated.

 All in all, in was expected that global oil production would increase by 2% to cope with 2008's anticipated demand.

So, if we take the hard and fast, true physical reasons for oil price volatility, with hindsight, there doesn't seem to be a great deal there.  Which leaves us with the intangilbe reasons, the suspicions & worries of the analysts, and the financial market traders, the doom & gloom dramatic predictions of the world's media, desperate to find something to grab headlines and viewers, and then speculators, the forward traders & the short traders who place their bets and see where the dice fall.

Hindsight is a wonderfull thing, but sitting here at the end of a turbulent year, I really wonder just how much of the whole "oil crisis" was down to speculators making money, and how long the rest of the world will be paying for it.