“The great oil boom of 2007-2008 is over. After rising from $55 per barrel to $92 per barrel (a 67% increase) over the course of 2007 and then surging by another 60% to a record high of $147 by early July, the price of West Texas Intermediate oil has since slid to $110 before bouncing back to its current level of $118. The slide in oil prices is mostly a demand story although the strengthening US dollar and steady increase in supply has also played a role.”

“Are gasoline and energy prices too high? What’s high enough? It may be a distinct miniority opinion, but if you were to ask me, I’d say I think they’re not high enough — and I sincerely hope they keep rising. It may be the only way the world wakes up to the perils of climate change — hitting people in their pocketbooks where it hurts most.”

“As the chief economist of the IEA, I cannot by law make any predictions about prices. But what I can tell you is that I expect that for the next years to come, we will have a high price trajectory. There may be zigzags, but I would be very surprised if prices go down to the levels we saw three or four years ago, in the long term.”

“Shell made profits of $7.8bn (£3.9bn) in the first three months of the year, up from $6.9bn a year ago. And rival BP saw its profits rise 48% to $6.588bn (£3.31bn), from $4.4bn.”