>>I've heard (sorry no link) that US oil consumption is down 9%
>>
>>Also, since americans are cutting back, China and Europe consumption is down
>>
>>In addition, I feel the dollar is being supported in way I don't fully understand, but that depresses the Oil price.
>>
>>I believe that oil will be back at record territory by next summer
>>
>>Bob
>
>How could it go up if consumption is down?

What if money goes down faster? Inventing $7e11 out of the blue will surely pump up the inflatory expectations, and once such expectations are afoot, everyone starts calculating the inflation into price of everything. As simple as "the cost of electricity is up 10%, so the price of cheese is up 10%" - even though we know it takes a lot of other inputs to make cheese, nobody raises any alarms around such a price increase, because if power is up 10%, so is everything else. Replace "power" and "cheese" with your favorite pair of material and product.