Oil clips carriers' wings

Oil clips carriers' wings:

"ASIAN carriers are starting to feel the pinch from sky-rocketing oil prices and the pain may worsen after crude futures have soared to an unprecedented $US66 a barrel, analysts said.
Hong Kong carrier Cathay Pacific, one of the world's top airlines, is already sounding the alarm after its half-year net profits to June dropped to $214 million from $227 million a year ago."

All airlines will be feeling the burden of oil at 66 US dollars a barrel. They are saying it will get to a $1.30 a litre here. Apart from the fact no one cares and it won't change and we will be told that is how it is, why is it? How does oil get to be that expensive? Why? Who benefits? Why? This article says:

"New York's main contract, light sweet crude for September delivery, soared past $US66 a barrel for the first time ever this week, driven by US refinery outages, Mideast tensions and continued strong demand for gasoline in the United States."

Well, if this is so why is our petrol so expensive? How does the Middle East put petrol up? Why has the US got outages? To me it all seems such a weird way to run the world, but then, I am not an economist. We are paying extra, airlines are paying extra. Who is getting the extra? If stressing makes things more expensive, why stress? Why not have peace and quiet? Now, there's a thought.