OIL: Is the Wild Ride Over?

During the past year, the price of oil has been on a roller-coaster ride that has taken it from $25 a bbl. down to below $10 and then back up to almost $18. But the wild ride appears to be over for the time being, much to the relief of producers and consumers alike. When Treasury Secretary James Baker met with his Saudi Arabian counterpart Mohammed Ali Abdul Khail in Khail's country last week, the two finance officials seemed to think that worldwide crude prices had finally settled at a mutually agreeable level. The current price still provides consumers with relatively cheap energy but is less likely than $10 a bbl. to create economic disaster for oil-producing countries and the U.S. energy belt. One sign that the current price may stick: four major U.S. oil companies reached an agreement with Saudi Arabia last week to buy crude at nearly $18 a bbl. for at least the next five months.