In March at Hart's World Refining & Fuels Conference, one of the speakers suggested that with European oil prices being so high, the U.S. gas prices had nowhere to go but up, up, up. And now that seems to be coming to pass. So out of curiosity, I did a little research and discovered the following average world gas prices: $11.29 a gallon in Turkey (AP - May 31) $9.66 a gallon in France (AP - May 31) $8.60 a gallon in England, Vena $5.67 a gallon in Brazil (AP - May 31) $4.09 a gallon in the U.S. $3.29 a gallon in China 45 cents a gallon in Saudi Arabia 12 cents a gallon in Venezuela (where consumers see low gas prices as a birth rate due to government subsidies and plenty of oil) (AP - May 31) One of the topics of conversation in the global market right now is rising gas prices in China. Will higher gas prices in China mean lower prices here in the U.S.? Rising fuel prices in Asia could limit demand, and might ultimately lower prices worldwide. But it's yet another tiny factor in the speculative ingredients of the pie that could lower costs here. –Lindsay Goodier, Online Editor, OilandGasInvestor.com; www.OilandGasInvestor.com; lgoodier@hartenergy.com