Here's Why Oil Prices Have Tanked Four Times in Three Decades

Oil may have hit its top price.
Prices are in the middle of a rally, having inched up to about $38 a barrel from a 12-year low of $27.10 in January. Analysts are warning that this recovery might sputter out once prices climb high enough to convince U.S. shale producers to increase production—about $55 a barrel.
QuickTake Oil Prices
The problem is supply. There’s too much oil sitting around in storage. Even though crude production in the U.S. has slowed about 5.5 percent since last summer, inventories are still bloated. Getting rid of that oversupply could take a while, especially since Saudi Arabia has kept pumping and Iran is promising to increase production by 1 million barrels a day.
This is the fourth major crash in oil prices in the past three decades. This short video explains what has happened each time and how long it took prices to rebound. And if history is any lesson—we could be looking at cheap oil for a long time to come.