The entire oil consuming countries including US, Japan, China and India were at the receiving end for the last two years due to the steep spike in the Crude oil prices. The crude oil prices went up from around 30 dollars to over 146 dollars in 2007 and 2008. The OPEC countries were blaming the surge in the consumption in China and US, and also the speculators for the spike in Price and went to the extent of saying that the realistic price for Crude is around 150 dollars.

In the last six months, the Crude oil prices have started softening, that too sharply, due to the global economic meltdown. The US announced that its financial system is in a mess, and its economy is heading for a recession. It was soon followed by China and Japan indicating that their exports are seen crashing due to weak demand in US and Europe.

And with the financial messup, all the speculators have been forced to wind up their forward position in all commodities including crude oil. That has forced the crude oil prices to touch a new year low of below 80 dollars this month. There are seasoned experts who are predicting the crude oil prices to go below sixty dollars to a barrel in 2009. That could be a silver lining for all oil consuming countries and their billions of customers.