Originally Posted by jungle

It may have some degree of control, just as our consumption does. You also may be underestimating the greed of individual OPEC members, and political obstruction to drilling and building Nuclear power plants.
The OPEC embargo in the '70s unleashed an astounding amount of exploration and drilling along with movement toward alternatives: they can price themselves out of the market. Canadian tar sands are very viable at these levels-higher price induces more supply.