155 years of the real oil price
Derek Shevkenek - Oct 31, 2022
With oil prices having fallen so far, it helps to step back to take a look at the big, big picture to see where things are at in light of history. First, here's the price of oil over the past 2 years:
Next, David Stockman published the following chart showing the real apples-to-apples inflation adjusted price of oil since 1861. The long term average price is $47 USD per barrel in today's dollars.
Today's oil price in the low $30's is quite low, with $20 (in today's dollars) appearing to be the historic lower limit. For example, in the 1960's the stated price of oil was around $3 per barrel range, but inflation adjusted is equivalent to $22.50 today.