The cushion of available oil will grow thin, and an unsettled atmosphere will likely translate into another spiky curve for oil prices this year.

WSJ: Rising Demand for Oil Spells More Price Pain

The kingdom produces some 8 million barrels of oil a day and provides a vital supply cushion in times of geopolitical stress.

FORBES: CERA Week

Lynch thinks that it won't take long for savvy oil traders to notice the gradual building of the capacity cushion and to decide that there is no real threat of supply disruption.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Indeed, thanks to foreign investment and windfall profits from higher oil prices, a stabilisation fund set up by the government to cushion the country were the economy to sour has grown much more quickly than expected.

ECONOMIST: The government signals the end-game | The

Here's one more sobering oil fact: The world has only a 1% short-term cushion.

FORBES: Capitalism's Amazing Resilience

Oil production may increase in 2006, and start to reflate that missing cushion.

ECONOMIST: Energy security

Basically, in the past, Saudi Arabia maintained a sufficient cushion of spare capacity to put an effective cap on the price of oil.

FORBES: Energy Stocks For An Ugly Market

Just this weekend, the Soviet Union offered Romania additional energy resources (390, 000 tons of oil for January and 22 million cubic meters of natural gas daily) to help cushion the latter against the winter's expected hardships, hardships likely to be exacerbated by severe shortages and dislocations following the recent revolution.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center For Security Policy