2008 was a crazy year for the world. (For me, too, but hey, that's not the point of this post.)
Oil hit $147/barrel in July. The financial system crashed and it hit a low in December of $33/barrel. Gas prices went from over $4/gallon to a buck-fifty in less than six months.
The low price of oil was short-lived. For the past 18 months oil has traded in a range of $65-$85 per barrel. Why? OPEC decided it was a good idea to have price stability to help the world economy. At $147/barrel countries like the US and Japan might do something crazy like find alternative forms of energy. OPEC is basically saying, "So let's keep the price high enough to make a lot of money and low enough that they don't consider weening themselves off of oil."
Now several OPEC nations have signaled a desire to push the price higher. The poorer countries like Iran and Libya always push for higher prices. That's nothing new. Now the 800 pound Gorilla (aka Saudia Arabia) also wants higher prices. In OPEC, what Saudi wants, Saudi gets.
If you happen to click on the article you'll see that the UAE is one of the few countries arguing to keep the price lower. It's unusual for this country to disagree with its big brother from the south... but given how much this country has become dependent on tourism and foreign capital it kinda makes sense.
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