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.