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How Are Oil Prices Fabricated?

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How Are Oil Prices Fabricated? The history of the oil industry started off smooth and inexpensive, but as years went on, more and more uses came of the commodity which drove its value up significantly. There is a lot of money to be made in the oil industry, likewise, there is a lot of money to be lost. The formula to make money in this industry is not so much controlled by the supply and demand of the product as much as it is the cost of extracting and refining the raw material. Configuring the price of oil is great for the profiteers, but not so good for the consumer at times. The big question is, who is controlling the oil supply for the States and how the prices are determined?
The petroleum industry is still a fairly new concept being only 159 years old, however, there have been many successes within that time that make the products of petroleum very valuable. In 1855, when a petroleum (crude oil) sample was closely analyzed by Benjamin Silliman, a professor at Yale University, it was discovered that the commodity has a wide variety of uses (Folsom). Fifteen years later, John D. Rockefeller had founded Standard Oil, which at the time was the largest corporation in the United States. Bringing in one million dollars in capital and accountable for about 90 percent on the country’s refining processing (Hinsdale). Rockefeller took this business to the next level, making Standard Oil a monopoly and trumping all of the competition. His formula to success was “the best . . .

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