1. The fundamentals in recent months did not support the high price in the first place. Under this interpretation, it was a prolonged bubble that kept oil prices high for three and a half years. The bubble was kept inflated by two factors: projections of high future demand in emerging markets, especially China, and expectations of future difficulties in production.
In reality, neither has materialized to the expected extent. Demand has not been as high as was projected, as demonstrated by the falling prices of other commodities. And in spite of a difficult geopolitical situation, production has been higher than many expected, in part due to significant amounts of North American shale coming on stream, with more to come in future years.