What would happen when oil is at $80?

Assuming oil price rises to $80 again and stay there for a long while, what can happen? There are some can be predicted or some business opportunties are looming.

Rising transportation costs. Transportation costs eat into overall revenue quickly as oil price rises. Long distance transportation loses its flavor to shorter ones. For example, China may loss its advantage on distance to Mexico even the advantages may still be in place. In more micro-economy point of view, companies would allocate corresponding resources for mailing and shipping systems. For example, bundle larger shipment by re-scheduling.

More remote communication infrastructure investment. Internet is certainly looking for second life on this score. The need of having close collaboration may well be imbedded into future internet technology developments. Consequently, communication infrastructure investment gets bigger. 3-D sensitive tools will become hot spots. When problem of having sensitive surrounding available, the face-to-face need is reduced.

More distributed work force. More people would select work remotely. That brings in questions of how to manage remote workers. Some disciplines are suitable but others aren’t. The difference is how employers balance among them. For example, make incentives to those who need to stay at home and come to work at the same time so that with the same budget employers can still maintain an efficient work force.

More at-home entertainment. Stay more at home and use the ones which have already paid in most households. Online entertainment business will be on the rise.
Office mall will be on the drop. It is obvious. One might catch the wind is short term rental office building with heavily armed internet gadgets.