Thanks, agentm for the info on middle east production costs....

Thanks, agentm for the info on middle east production costs. Some sources indicate that oil production is climbing into the $80-$100/barrel, although this is more about "marginal" costs rather than actual production costs (i.e. the cost of adding more production to existing production). Here is one article from financial times, but i read a few others in various publications:
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2012/05/02/983171/marginal-oil-production-costs-are-heading-towards-100barrel/

However, a major textbook reports the following production costs, which are quite different. Not sure which source is accurate, although the marginal vs actual production metric may explain the difference.