Oil at $100 this year?

    • Oil at $100 this year?

      This is an extract from telegraph.co.uk/finance/financ…to-hit-100-this-year.html

      Jeff Rubin, an economist who correctly forecast that oil would reach $100, is predicting that it will hit that level again by the end of this year.

      Mr Rubin, who was the chief economist at Canadian bank CIBC and published a book on the energy of economics last year, told Bloomberg News in an interview that "it’s safe to say that we’ll see triple-digit oil prices by the fourth quarter of this year."

      The emerging economies of China and India will help drive demand for oil, according to Mr Rubin, who expects crude prices to reach $90 a barrel during the first quarter of this year.

      Oil prices have jumped for the past 10 days as the cold weather sweeping the US, Europe and parts of Asia fuels demand for the commodity. It was trading at about $82 a barrel in early trading in New York.

      Oil peaked at close to $147 a barrel in July 2008 and then tumbled sharply, falling to below $40 a barrel in early 2009, as the global downturn dented demand. Mr Rubin, who last year wrote “Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller”, expects oil to hit $200 by 2012.

      “When we get into 2011 or 2012 and we start to deal with prices of $120 a barrel, $147 a barrel, $160 a barrel, that’s where I think at least the global economy becomes very challenged,” Mr Rubin told Bloomberg.