Oil prices climbed to record highs Friday on mounting concern about limited supplies.
Crude futures for May delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange settled up $1.87 at $57.27 a barrel. That price is a new record closing price, beating the old record of $56.72 a barrel of a couple of weeks ago. Adjusted for inflation, Friday’s closing price close is the highest since Oct. 11, 1990 when Nymex crude closed at $40.42, which is equal to $58.18 in today’s dollars. Nymex crude would still need to reach $90 a barrel to beat the inflation-adjusted high price that was established in 1980.
This Forbes graph provides an instructive overview of oil prices over the past 150 years. The last 30 years of oil price fluctuations has been quite a ride.