From the mid-1980s to September 2003, the inflation adjusted price of a barrel of crude oil on NYMEX was generally under 25/barrel.Then,during2004,thepriceroseabove40, and then 60.Aseriesofeventsledthepricetoexceed60 by August 11, 2005, leading to a record-speed hike that reached 75bythemiddleof2006.Pricesthendroppedbackto60/barrel by the early part of 2007 before rising steeply again to 92/barrelbyOctober2007,and99.29/barrel for December futures in New York on November 21, 2007. Throughout the first half of 2008, oil regularly reached record high prices. Prices on June 27, 2008, touched 141.71/barrel,forAugustdeliveryintheNewYorkMercantileExchange,amidLibya′sthreattocutoutput,andOPEC′spresidentpredictedpricesmayreach170 by the Northern summer. The highest recorded price per barrel maximum of 147.02wasreachedonJuly11,2008.Afterfallingbelow100 in the late summer of 2008, prices rose again in late September. On September 22, oil rose over 25to130 before settling again to 120.92,markingarecordone−daygainof16.37. Electronic crude oil trading was temporarily halted by NYMEX when the daily price rise limit of 10wasreached,butthelimitwasresetsecondslaterandtradingresumed.ByOctober16,priceshadfallenagaintobelow70, and on November 6 oil closed below 60.Thenin2009,priceswentslightlyhigher,althoughnottotheextentofthe2005–2007crisis,exceeding100 in 2011 and most of 2012. Since late 2013 the oil price has fallen below the 100mark,plummetingbelowthe50 mark one year later.
As the price of producing petroleum did not rise significantly, the price increases have coincided with a period of record profits for the oil industry. Between 2004 and 2007, the profits of the six supermajors – ExxonMobil, Total, Shell, BP, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips – totaled $494.8 billion. Likewise, major oil-dependent countries such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Russia, Venezuela and Nigeria have benefited economically from surging oil prices during the 2000s.
