Oil and natural gas are the flagship of the American economy. Together, they make up more than 60% of the total energy consumed in America alone. It is seen as an essential task for the country to keep taking the appropriate measures so that gas and oil prices never skyrocket. The National Energy Technology Laboratory is dedicated to keep an eye on domestic production and the international market.

The NETL has a tough task cut out for it, in spite of the fact that the American domestic resources in oil and natural gas are plentiful. It is mainly due to the fact that the available resources are already harvested and the promising ones are set in geologically challenging settings.

In spite of the intention to keep the prices down, sometimes they shoot up, nevertheless. The situation however is not always bleak. The news from CNN money states that even though the gasoline prices have reached a record high in the U.S.A, actually it is much lower than some European nations. The same report quotes that Amsterdam and Oslo citizens are actually paying nearly three times more than those in the U.S.

Scenarios like these happen again and again and the oil and natural gas prices seem to recover from one crisis to fall back into another. Industry experts, put the price disparity of oil and natural gas in the international arena to government policies. Some nations like Venezuela and the Saudi Arabia have government-owned companies which keep the local gasoline prices low.

Let us now take a look at the American consumption of oil and natural gas at close quarters. The Department of Energy bulletin puts the American consumption at an average of 20 million barrels of oil per day. Forty-five percent of the fuel is used up in motor gasoline. Distillate fuel oil, jet fuel, residual fuel and other oils make up the rest. Each barrel of oil contains 42 gallons, out of which 19-20 gallons of gasoline are extracted. So, it can be said that in the United States, on an average 178 millions of gasoline is consumed every day.

Summer is the season when gas prices spiral upwards. It is vacation time and so many people hit the road. Days like the Memorial Day, the Fourth of July also experience a mad rush for gasoline. Generally, a high demand translates into high prices but not always. The summer of 2001 had seen a reverse in the graph of high demand and high prices.

Natural disasters like the Hurricane Katrina are price pushers, as well. International events also influence the prices a great deal.