Milestones In Crude Oil Prices

What a difference a decade makes.

As crude oil nears $100 a barrel, it's hard to believe that black gold was trading under $11 a barrel as recently as December 1998.

Fast forward five years from that day to a time when the oil market may have changed irrevocably. Though the Persian Gulf War had been won, a hefty risk premium was built into prices.

Crude Oil MIlestones

Date	Price	Level
April 7, 1983	$30.17	$30
Oct. 9, 1990	$40.40	$40
Oct 1, 2004	$50.12	$50
June 27, 2005	$60.54	$60
April 17, 2006	$70.14	$70
Sept. 13, 2007	$80.09	$80
Oct. 25, 2007	$90.46	$90

By the spring of 2004, crude had eclipsed the long-standing record high of $40.40 set in October 1990 after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.

Prices drifted back briefly, but by October of 2004, the benchmark U.S. crude had broken through $50 a barrel -- something many once thought was improbable, if not impossible. 

In 2005, a Goldman Sachs report predicting a super-spike and $100-a-barrel oil brought cries of incredulity and at least a few chuckles.

What seems downright unbelievable today is that about a year ago, crude oil was trading at $50.

Inflation-adjusted or not, oil is sky high. Here’s a look at crude oil prices over the past two decades and major milestones on the way to $100 a barrel.

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