Happy New Year! Oil is $100 a barrel!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/02/business/02cnd-oil.html?hp

A far cry from back in the late 90s, when it wavered between $10 and $30...

http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/features/fex90603.htm

From the Economist, in March of '99:

The choice is simple. Either the Saudis must cut back their welfare state, by slashing benefits and raising taxes, or they must find a way of increasing oil revenues. But the ruling family's delicate domestic situation makes the first option difficult. So instead the Saudis may now do what once would have been unthinkable: throw open the taps. That, according to McKinsey, a management consultancy, would certainly herald an era of $5 oil. (link)