Many people are in sticker shock thanks to high gas prices and oil that punched through the $135-a-barrel level recently, before sliding back.

In the energy market Thursday, crude for July delivery pulled back after breaching the $135 level in overnight electronic trading, closing at $130.80/barrel, down $2.36. July reformulated gasoline dipped 7.03 cents, to $3.3297/gallon.

Who cares if oil is bullish or bubbly? Prices are going up, baby. Why ask why?

If you were running an oil company, what would your number one priority be? Jacking up production, right? I mean, prices have just shot up from $50 to $120. And you know that whatever you produce, you’ll sell. Can it get any simpler than that? Whatever it takes, push product out.

If the government demanded U.S. oil be sold at a massive discount to domestic markets, oil producers would stop investing in the U.S. And we’d end up buying all of our oil abroad.

Oil-consuming countries and international oil producers no longer influence oil prices, reports AFP, as a global gathering of energy elite gets underway in Rome and the price of New York oil struck a historic peak at $114.49 per barrel.

International oil majors now control a mere 6% of oil and 20% of gas reserves, according to the report. The rest is in the hands of national oil companies.

The unpalatable reality is that national producers such as Venezuela or Russia today have less need of international oil majors to help them develop their untapped reserves.

With the price of crude oil now down over 30% from its August high of nearly $80 per barrel, many have concluded that the bull market is over.