Weighing current supply and demand of crude oil

I recently researched on imbalances in the crude oil industry. Although in late 2008 and early '09 America was experiencing record shattering gas prices, the general change in crude oil supply was a mild one of about 2% in the amount of barrels produced daily. This recent exponential rise in gas guzzlers is what has caused the price per barrel to increase from 33$ to 132$ within a 6 year period. So you see that an increase in oil demand has incresed its price even though supply stayed relatively constant. As the oil industry continues to experience somewhat of a plateau, many question what will become of the long run oil supply. The possible shortage in the future is coupled with the growing incentive of oil companies to invest in scrounging more oil as it remains profitable. This growing incentive to hunt down open oil fields, or "elephants", has caused a rise in the demand for steel companies that provide equiptment for the job site. Though many citizens are becoming increasingly worried as companies continue to capitalize on this nonrenewable good and subsequently demand has also gone up in bio-diesel, and fuel alternative industries. Unfortunately I forsee major problems in the future as money hungry monopolies like OPEC continue to harvest as much oil as they can and don't decrease their output. Because though the American demand for gas and other crude oil products will remain constant, oil supply will not.