He certainly deserves some credit for increased American oil production, which has lowered our dependence on OPEC (and our prices). He does not deserve any credit for OPEC panicking as American oil production increased and flooding the market with Middle Eastern oil, which, honestly, had as much to do with the price falling off so dramatically as increased American oil and decreased demand did in the first place.

 

The main reasons for oil prices being so high for so long were, again, OPEC, this time restricting supply to keep prices inflated, Hurricane Katrina putting major offshore drilling platforms out of service for years, and the resulting loss of supply while demand remained static. Again, Obama deserved some of the blame, particularly for not moving aggressively to reduce demand for foreign oil, but a lot of it fell on OPEC again.

 

Basically, when OPEC thinks they have a stranglehold on the market, they'll product less oil to drive up prices. When the US is replacing demand for OPEC oil with demand for its own, OPEC freaks out and floods the US market with oil to try and drop the price to a point where it's unsustainable for American companies.

 

Well, not unsustainable, but it might force the CEO to choose between buying that sixth Gulfstream GV or laying off 500 employees, and that GV will always win...

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