WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: OPEC Sweats: How Low Can Oil Prices Go? “Petro-states’ breakeven prices reflect how much governments are spending. In the 1990s, the price of oil collapsed, and countries tightened their belts to get breakeven prices close to that level. But oil prices have ballooned in recent years, reaching a high of $148 per barrel in 2008. That provided governments with a flood of cash to spend, just in time for the Arab Spring, when many Middle Eastern countries ramped up government spending to placate their suddenly restive populations. But the price of oil has receded from that 2008 high, now resting around $102 per barrel. That’s largely due to the US shale boom, which has brought millions of barrels of new oil to market and brought prices down with it. As the above chart shows, that means trouble for many of these states that have come to rely on high oil prices to help them prop up their regimes.” Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of autocrats.