If there is a non-cynical answer to this question, it eludes me.

I've had the same question on my mind too. It remains realistic to assume longer term steady price appreciation with this non-renewable resource, but the rapidity of that spike was very strange.

One underplayed factor has been the depreciated value of the US dollar. The oil marketplace is significantly dollar-based, and so oil revenues and profit were being generated in a falling currency. So apart from all the other factors put forward (speculation, etc.), it seems plausible that if you're getting paid in a devalued currency, you have an interest in seeing the price of your product go up to match the loss of relative value. Someone from OPEC mentioned this but I never saw much further reference to it in the press as a factor at play.

Here in Canada and elsewhere, the price increase has been buffered due to the relative strength of non-US currencies. And now, the economic collapse presents a new challenge: they have to keep the price down due to falling demand, and also they don't want alternative fuels, etc. to be so compelling an option when fresh in everybody's mind is the painful memories of of expensive fuel in summer 08.