What do you mean by way too much? And they dont set them, commodity trades set the prices. There are thousands of sellers and buyer on the market. Every seller tries to get the best price while still being able to sell and every buyer tries to get the lowest price while still being able to buy. The price is what we call in economics market equilibrium. It is so high because there are 2 billion people in China and another billion or so in India that are using more and more oil. That pushes demand and that in turn means that oil producers are able to sell the oil at a higher price because there is no spare capacity left. Its capitalism in its purest form If you had a Honda Repsol replica would you sell it for the same price as just another 1000rr? Especially if there were 10 people at your doorstep bidding for it. You would sell to the guy who was willing to pay the most for it. Why should it be different with oil producers? Well whatever your feelings are on the politics of oil, and I am sure there is plenty of corruption there, accepting the h2o car sounds like this. "Oil companies are corrupt, therefore a car that runs on water, and violates the laws of thermal dynamics, is real." Its a Non sequitur