The market for crude oil is in veritable free fall. The price of a barrel has dropped 30 percent since June, and the ripples have only begun, with analysts warning of everything from bankruptcies of Texas oil fields to economic troubles in big oil-producing nations like Venezuela and Nigeria.

If oil prices stay low or keep falling, it will be one of the most important trends shaping the world economy in 2015, which raises the question: Why is this happening? To answer that, it is useful to look at the market for another fluid that is stored in barrels, one that is less economically consequential but quite a bit more tasty: bourbon.

As it turns out, oil producers from Dallas to Abu Dhabi could learn a few things from the Kentucky distilleries that turn out nectarlike whiskeys.

What oil and bourbon have in common are the long time lags between investment in a new supply and availability of the finished product. With bourbon, that’s because a distiller must keep the good stuff in barrels for seven, 10, or even 20 years before it’s ready to drink. With oil, it’s because investment in new drilling projects is a slow-moving affair, frequently involving years of complex engineering and construction before the crude starts to flow.