text: The price probably won't get that high.\n\n1) Eventually Iraq's oil infrastructure will be up and running, which will cushion the market.\n\n2) Demand has to level off eventually. There just isn't enough capital to sustain prices even where they are now. People will have to find ways to conserve/alternate energy. That will mean prices level off.\n\n3) The big dogs like US, PRC, and Russia have enough soft power to lean on OPEC nations to increase production. They don't have to invade, they just have to threaten them with embargos and the like.\n\nEven if those three things don't do the trick, invasion won't actually help much. It's cheaper to pay the Saudi royal family a cut off the top than to subdue a bunch of very irritated Arabs wish kalashnikovs and plastic explosive.