Many of the consumers have had oil at $130 for decades!

Sir may I congratulate on placing the current price of oil in its true perspective saying "When oil was $10 a barrel, the idea that the stuff was running out seemed demented", "Solving the $130 oil conundrum, May 21.

It is exactly in that "dementia" during the last oil bust-boom (where you place yourself depends on whether you are an extractor or a consumer) that we find the origin of the current boom-bust, and so let us hope that a similar dementia is not present this time. This requires being sincere with the facts.

Among the little acknowledged oil facts is that for instance that the European consumer and many others have already for decades been living with oil in the $130, only that instead of the extractor getting that value it was the taxman. While oil prices were nudging down to the $10 you mention, taxmen were stealthily increasing their take...will they now reduce it?