Oil is traded in US dollars at this point. The US has a monopoly on this and is why we are not totally busted. The more money the Federal Reserve prints out of thin air, the less it is worth..hence oil prices rise. Multiple wars and instability in the Middle East also cause the prices to rise, as does the whole mess of who can drill where, "green" issues, fracking issues. Add to this the "peak oil" issue...and...it will just keep going up. Energy and money go hand in hand...its why we are in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya etc. 1000 people were murdered in Ivory Coast yesterday by government forces. Will we provide military assistance? No. Why? No oil.

Simple, Oil is a limited resource on Earth and human population is going up exponentially.

BING_BING_BING... We have a Winner. You are correct. Oil is traded in US Dollars...known as Petro-Dollars. Everytime we print more out of thin air, the dollar goes down in value...Oil goes up.

Throw in a little MidEast instability and speculation on the market...Price of oil goes up.

Now that China is cashing in on US Treasuries... US Dollar declines... Oil goes up.

The 3rd largest purchaser of US Debt was...WAS... Japan. Now they need liquidity to rebuild Japan...now instead of buying US Treasuries and debt...they too are cashing in.

Too many dollars chasing too little product causes inflation... Oil goes up.

Some key factors:

* Bernanke inflating the dollar.

* Supply can't keep up with demand (Peak oil, Economic recovery, Growing Asian economies)

* Geopolitical factors which affects the markets (Libya, etc).