$100.01

That was oil's closing price on Tuesday, a new record, although as I'm writing this oil has retreated by a full dollar, to the no-less guzzle-challenging price of $99.01. There is no single reason for this latest price hike, but rather a combination of reasons: an oil-refinery accident and shut-down in Texas, instability in Nigeria (one of the world's top producers and chief exporter to the United States), continuing strong demand from China and India (more than 10 million barrels a day between them, or about half U.S. daily consumption) and Venezuela's threats that oil supplies to the United States could be interrupted.

Despite all this, OPEC's oil ministers, scheduled to meet March 5, may announce a cut in output. They're anticipating a global economic slowdown. They don't want a repeat of the 1990s oil glut that sent oil prices tanking to $10 and $15 a barrel (remember those days of $1-a-gallon gas?). "Production is not going to increase," Algeria's oil minister, Chakib Khelil, who chairs Opec, told Reuters. "It will either decrease or be stable."

If OPEC sticks to its resolve, it's bad news for consumers either way. Demand for oil may not be as strong as it was in 2007, when worldwide demand increased 1.4% over 2006, but demand is still projected to increase 1%. Small increase? Not if oil prices are pressured past the $100 mark. For every $10 increase in the price of oil, American motorists are paying an extra 19 cents a gallon at the pump, which explains the prices well above $3 a gallon today, compared to about $2.40 a gallon in mid-2007, when oil prices briefly slid to $70 a barrel.

One more trend to worry about: The more the world consumes what's left of the planet's oil reserves (some 1.15 trillion barrels), the more dependent it becomes on OPEC countries, particularly the Middle East's OPEC countries, which control well over half the world's oil. That share will grow as other nations, including Russia, Mexico and the United States, quickly deplete their reserves. OPEC ministers have reason to be smug. The oil future is theirs.