Oil: Is the price only about supply and demand?

The oil companies keep repeating the idea that the current high oil prices are due to supply constraints because of high consumer demand for oil products. Their solution is to increase supply is to access untapped oil resources. Oil companies in the US reject calls for using alternate renewable sources such as Brazil is currently doing. The only solution for big oil is the utilization of undeveloped reserves in protected Wilderness areas like the Artic and the coastal shelf deposits.

I reject the claim of supply being constrained by consumer demand as the reason for the high prices when I note that inventory numbers for oil and oil products continue to rise. The increase in demand for oil products is the result of additions to inventory not consumer demand. My prediction is that when the oil companies get the access they want we will see a fall in oil prices with a possible free fall to as low as $30 a barrel on the correction. When Congress grants the drilling rights they want in the Anwar it will be a great opportunity to do a long-term short on oil and oil companies.