Oil rallies after near $100 drop since July…  OPEC’s Khelil says possible no output decision in Cairo…  U.S. shares higher

In the energy market Monday, oil gave up more ground, with crude for December delivery closing at $54.95/barrel, down $2.09. Gasoline for December delivery dropped 6.5 cents, to $1.1746/gallon.

Oil prices set a new record just shy of the $130 a barrel level yesterday (Tuesday), despite a concerted - though probably futile - effort by the U.S. government to rein in the runaway commodity.

In Chicago, gas prices have now topped $4 a gallon. Americans all across the country are struggling to fill up the tank. Companies are even pitching in gas money to help their employees out.

US bomb threat to Iran hikes oil price. Here’s the clever way to play it, and it’s NOT by investing in oil. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mike Mullen, has warned Iran not to assume the U.S. military can’t strike.

OPEC is doing everything it can to drive up the oil price.

No sooner had the words “oil at $120 per barrel” left my lips yesterday, Chakib Khelil, President of OPEC, said it could hit $200 and there was little he or his cartel could do about it.

It’s enough to set off one’s contrarian radar. I mean, predictions of $200-a-barrel oil have been everywhere over the last week. CIBC analyst Jeff Rubin, with an eerily accurate track record of previous predictions, kicked it off last week with a forecast of $225 by 2012 with $7 gasoline to match.

OPEC President Chakib Khelil said he can see crude oil prices reaching $200 a barrel because the market is driven by the the US dollar’s slide, according to Algerian government newspaper El Moudjahid.

According to the paper: “Questioned about a possible rise which would go to $200, the minister did not rule out this eventuality, explaining that this rise is indexed from now on to the fall in the dollar or to the rise in the dollar.”

Peak Oil expert Byron King was ahead of the curve on the role of the dollar in pushing up oil prices.

In the energy market Monday, crude for May delivery hit a record intraday high of $117.76, before also closing at a record $117.48/barrel, up 79 cents. May reformulated gasoline dropped 1.02 cents, to $2.9791/gallon.