MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Forecaster of oil at 100 dollars, now announces U$D 200

The price of crude oil could soar to 200 US dollars a barrel in as little as six months, as supply continues to struggle to meet demand, warned a report from Goldman Sachs energy strategist Argun Murti as benchmark US light crude passed the 123 dollars mark for the first time

Surging demand was increasingly likely to create a "super-spike" past 200 in six months-to-two years' time, he said. Oil prices have now risen by 25% in the last four months and 400% since 2001. Mr Murti correctly predicted three years ago, when oil was about 55 US dollars a barrel that it would pass 100 dollars which it reached for the first time in January of this year. Soaring global demand for oil is being led by China's continuing economic boom and, to a lesser extent, by India's rapid economic expansion. Both are now increasingly competing with the US, the European Union and Japan for the lion's share of global oil production. This additional demand comes at a time of continuing production problems in a number of oil-producing nations. Production is down in Nigeria after the latest attacks on pipelines this week by anti-government militants, while Iraqi exports through the north of the country have been hit by renewed cross-border raids by Turkish forces against Kurdish insurgents. Oil prices are also rising as the key US summer driving season approaches.