Additionally, the Koch Brothers have bought huge supplies of oil while the price is low, wait for Wall Street to drive the prices up, and then sell high. They have supertankers parked off shore with huge supplies of oil. They are simply waiting for the price to shoot up to sell.

Saudi Arabia has already said it could replace any shortages which occurred by Iran's withholding or inability as a result of a war to supply oil, so it strains credibility for the investment banks to project huge increases in cost as a result of a decreased availability, but it is very easy to believe they are simply attempting to grease their own financial pockets. All it takes is trades between the banks to start driving up prices, and they have shown in the recent past they are willing to do whatever it takes to maintain their projected profit levels.

Although the link below is an older article, it just shows what MSNBC revealed yesterday. There are 5 major banks currently speculating in oil and driving up the price. Additionally, 20 to 40 cents of the price one now spends on each gallon of gas goes directly to the Koch Brothers. (Sorry, I can't remember which MSNBC show showed the chart; it was a long news day yesterday....) But Morgan, Stanley and Goldman, Sachs were two of the five investment banks listed as currently driving up speculative prices.

Sam

http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/intelligent-energy/obama-asks-doj-to-investigate-oil-speculators/5759

and an interesting article on the Koch Brothers and their influence over the price of oil through speculation:

http://thinkprogress.org/report/koch-oil-speculation/