Gasoline prices in Canada caused inflation in the country to soar to a five-year high last month. All over the world, but particularly in North America, people are becoming very aware of how much depends on a stable fuel oil price. With rising prices, the search for alternatives becomes a high priority.
The crude oil price, like gasoline, is increasingly hard to predict, and fluctuates constantly. Only one thing is for sure: it is increasing. Not only is the cost of fuel in its myriad stages of production going up fast, but cleaner, less costly forms of energy, like natural gas, are being used up at a much quicker rate due to a fuel production process that has intensified in its scope and speed to keep up with a steadily increasing demand. The price of natural gas then, is directly related to fuel oil prices, as the former is used to create the latter.
Although the process of production itself is rather complex, oil and gas prices generally fluctuate at about the same rate, unless lines of distribution are somehow disrupted, in which case gasoline prices will rise while the cost of oil decreases.
Many alternatives to oil have arisen, but none have yet come close to demonstrating a realistic competition with the flow of notorious "black gold" which runs our world as it is currently known.
