The prince is a smart man well schooled in balancing price against demand and supply. If oil skyrockets, the conditions are ripe for alternative fuels to take centre stage. This will bring more interest and funding into things such as hybrids and fuel cell vehicles, which once they take root in mainstream motoring, will have no turning back for "primitive" gasoline powered cars. The Saudis would then be sitting on a mountain of black oil that people don't really have a need for anymore.

Oil is like a drug, you need to keep the supply affordable to the addict, yet not so expensive that the addict decides to try out other substances as an alternative to getting his high.

Even at $80 a barrel, I can bet my bottom dollar that petrol prices in Singapore will not go down to early 2002 levels. At most it will go down by ten to 15 cents. The oil companies here have tasted high income prices, its impossible for them to lower their profits... There will surely be many excuses to keep the prices up.