From the mid-1980s to September 2003, the inflation adjusted price of a barrel of crude oil on NYMEX was generally under $25/barrel.

Then during 2004, the price rose above $40, and then $50. A series of events led the price to exceed $60 by August 11, 2005, and then briefly exceed $75 in the middle of 2006. Prices then dropped back to $60/barrel by the early part of 2007 before rising steeply again to $92/barrel by October 2007, and $99.29/barrel for December futures in New York on November 21, 2007. Throughout the first half of 2008, oil regularly reached record high prices. On February 29, 2008, oil prices peaked at $103.05 per barrel, and reached $110.20 on March 12, 2008, the sixth record in seven trading days. Prices on June 27, 2008, touched $141.71/barrel, for August delivery in the New York Mercantile Exchange (after the recent $140.56/barrel), amid Libya's threat to cut output, and OPEC's president predicted prices may reach $170 by the Northern summer. The most recent price per barrel maximum of $147.02 was reached on July 11, 2008.

Prices near $95–105 per barrel (2007 U.S. dollars) are equal to the previous all time inflation adjusted record of 1980. This had been clearly exceeded by the first quarter of 2008. In terms of the crude price, U.S. records suggest that equivalent prices were last seen in the 1860s. In terms of refined petroleum products, one has to go back to the early 1920s to find similar prices in real terms. Outside the U.S., the history of both inflation and oil prices will be different, but the fact remains that after being inflation adjusted, prices over $120/barrel are unprecedented since the very earliest days of commercial oil production. Sustained high prices contribute to fears of an economic recession similar to that of the early 1980s. In the United States, gasoline consumption dropped by 0.5% in the first two months of 2008 in response to higher prices,compared to a drop of 0.4% total in 2007.

Commentators have attributed the price increases of this period to a confluence of factors, including reports from the United States Department of Energy and others showing a decline in petroleum reserves, worries over peak oil, Middle East tension, and oil price speculation. Some events have had short term effects on oil prices, such as North Korean missile launches, the crisis between Israel and Lebanon, tension between Iran and U.S., and "a hundred factors.