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It’s difficult to compare Housing/real estate and other commodities with the World energy market.

The biggest driving force is fact that China, India and many formerly third-world countries have greatly industrialized. The World demand for oil has nearly doubled in just a short while.

There is not much of a bubble here at all. Maybe a few dollars as the market fluctuates, but in the long run, it will double again in the near future.

From our own standpoint, we have to import refined distillates because we do not have the capacity to meet our own demand. Now that the rest of the World is starting to pass us economically, we will see even more demand that will sustain the current prices and even drive them higher.

Costs of trading with those countries will also go up because the energy costs went up for those foreign traders.

Believe me, there is no bubble, only foam on the water.

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Some interesting facts on oil supply and demand.

• World oil production was up 2.5 percent in the first quarter of 2008 over the same period in 2007 while world oil consumption rose by just 2 percent.
• Although U.S. crude oil inventories have fallen, gasoline inventories are at their highest since March, 1993
• The U.S. consumed 4 percent less petroleum in January 2008 than it did the year before.
• China's thirst for oil is abating somewhat. Its demand for oil, which once rose at 10 percent per year, has now dropped to 6 percent per year.
• World surplus oil production capacity has gone from a very tight 1.5 million barrels per day a couple of years ago to more than 3 million barrels today
• Since September 2003, the total number of open crude oil futures and options contracts rose by 364 percent. Meanwhile the global demand for petroleum rose by just 8.2 percent.

Source: ReasonOnline

It would appear that speculation may be a bigger contributing factor than you acknowledge.