[billyboy15]

This is a non issue. It’s all about supply/demand. Crude dropped to under $17 per barrel in (I think) 1998. There was no catastrophe then and there will be non if it happens again.

[Smokin' Joe]

It was a bloody catastrophe if you worked in the drilling and production end of the oil industry. The only person I knew who was employed at the field level was gearing down pump jacks in Canada so the oil company lost less money.

That was the result of an EIA forecast that predicted a worldwide glut of oil, but 'forgot' to factor in Asian demand.

Driling stopped completely in the area where I primarily (Rig count: zero) for the first time since oil was discovered in the early '50s.

[Lorianne]

I think the difference is that in 1998 the drillers and extraction were not financed by a panoply risky loans and those loans in turn were not sold on as good rated investments.