In such depths, it is impossible to build fixed oil rigs.

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The concern, generally, is that billions of speculative dollars are chasing a fixed amount of oil, working to increase commodity prices.

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This has profound implications for equilibrium gas prices, including the idea that gas should sell for some fixed proportion to oil based on the Btu value of the two fuels.

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Companies were offered "buybacks" instead, under which they drilled for oil, built pipelines and handed over the assets to the government in exchange for a fixed return, paid in oil.

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Under a production-sharing contract, an oil company would recoup its costs and then be entitled to a proportion of the oil extracted, instead of being paid a fixed fee for each barrel.

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The first worry is about direct competition for things that are in more or less fixed supply: geopolitical supremacy, the world's oil and raw materials, the status and perks that come with being the issuer of a trusted international currency.

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"The oil price spike was caused by geopolitical issues that can be fixed or overcome, " says Lynch.

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When the dollar was fixed to gold between the mid- 1940s and 1971, the price of oil barely fluctuated.

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