I thought the cold war was over.

But many third world countries with cheap oil dont have any oil reserves.

Regardless of the leaders intentions, the culture a leader lives in decides the decisions he makes.  For instance, when Egyptian President Mubarak thinks about what his people want, be it more political freedom or lower oil prices, since Egypt is more collectivist it serves him better to give them low oil prices. If the same thing happened in America, we would all want more political freedom.

Notes on third world oil prices:  Egypt consumes as much oil as it prodcues, so they could make more money selling their oil at market prices instead of heavily subsidising it for its population.  The Phillipines, another third world country with low gasoline prices, have very little oil production, so they buy all of their oil from other countries then give it to their people cheap.

http://education.yahoo.com/reference/factbook/countrycompare/oil/1a.html