Demand And Supply Of Oil

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Demand and Supply of Oil The price of a product or a service is usually based on two major factors, demand and supply. Demand is the quantity of a product or a service that consumers are willing and able to purchase at a given price. Supply is the willingness and ability of producers to produce a quantity of a good or a service at a given price. Price has the major influence on demand, so rising prices would result in falling demand, ceteris paribus. Price plays a chief role on the supply too, the higher the price, the bigger the supply. Oil is one of the most important commodities to be used by humans. Needs are things we must have to survive, such as food and shelter, and oil is almost a need, because oil has many fundamental uses: in production processes, as a fuel, to generate electricity, for heating, and many more other vital uses. Therefore, the prices of many products depend on the price of oil, and a rise in the price of oil would yield in a rise in the prices of the products. Inelastic goods are those that demand for them would not change if their price changes. Oil is a relatively inelastic good with autonomous demand, therefore, despite high prices; demand for oil will stay high. However, as mentioned earlier, high prices would lead to an increase in the prices of other products. It is worth mentioning that the price of oil is not only determined by the demand and supply of oil, but by OPEC as well. OPEC wants to keep oil prices low for a variety of reasons, including the fact that in the long run, alternatives for oil will be found and used if oil prices were high. However, for the exporting country, high oil prices are good, because the more they export the more revenue they receive. So when prices of oil are high, their revenues increase. Nevertheless, Saudi Arabia is a member in OPEC, and OPEC does not allow them to raise the oil prices by

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