NEW YORK (AP)—The price of oil has fallen by nearly half in just six months, a surprising and steep plunge that has consumers cheering, producers howling and economists wringing their hands over whether this is a good or bad thing.
The price of a barrel of oil is just under $58, down from a summer high of $107, and lower than at any time since the U.S. was still in recession in the spring of 2009.
So what’s going on? A global imbalance of supply and demand that is rippling across the world economy, for better and worse.
SUPPLIES GO BOOM
Years of high oil prices, interrupted briefly by the recession, inspired drillers around the world to scour the earth’s crust for more oil.
They found it.
Since 2008 oil companies in the U.S., for example, have increased production by 70 percent, or 3.5 million barrels of oil per day. To put that in perspective, that increase alone is more than the production of any OPEC member other than Saudi Arabia.
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