Every fracking well requires miles of pipe. The result is new investment in Ohio steel mills — which also benefit from cheap natural gas for fuel.

The presidential campaign talks a lot about coal in Ohio, but the fossil fuel of the moment is oil. Fracking has made possible a second oil boom, more than a century after the state's first one.

The state-controlled Russian oil firm Rosneft is reported ready to enter a multi-billion dollar joint venture with the British oil giant BP to create the world’s biggest listed oil company.

Higher production could make Iraq the world's second-largest oil exporter. Most of the added oil won't go to the U.S., but to countries helping Iraq rebuild its oil facilities and basic infrastructure.

The OPEC oil embargo nearly 40 years was a shock to the U.S. and its economy. But the long-term effects proved a shock to Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members, who learned that oil and politics don't mix.

Civi war combatants mindful of the importance of oil on the economy, left infrastructure largely undamaged.

The U.S. can become less dependent on foreign oil, but it's still a part of the global oil market –and that means no insulation from oil price shocks.

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve was established to protect the economy from an embargo. But just the threat of releasing oil into the market can rein in speculation in oil futures, too.

As world leaders gather to discuss the oil santions against Iran, that country is selling only half the volume of a year ago. But its reduced production is raising oil prices around the world.

Mid-day yesterday oil prices dropped three dollars in about a minute — and they have kept falling ever since.