It is very unlikely oil will rise to the levels from a few months ago. Hedge funds were leveraged 10:1 and sometimes more, using all the extra buying power to buy oil futures. The likelihood that hedge funds will remain fairly unregulated and allowed to lever themselves to that extent is not good.
Keep in mind, in 1998, we were in a booming economy and the price of a barrel of oil was just $6. If Enron was still in business we would have seen prices in the $200+ range.
However, with all the money printed we are doing, oil would rise if the dollar began to slip again. For now, the foreign investors seem more comfortable with their reserves in dollars than the currencies of their own fledgling economies.
Either way, people will reject higher oil prices and the 'powers that be' will have fresh in their minds what high oil prices can do to their economies. . . not to say our current decline is due to high oil prices, but it is related.