Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research, believes the long-term trend is down.

“Certainly, a political disruption of oil supplies — civil war in Nigeria, major fighting in southern Iraq, attacks on Caspian pipelines — could occur and would send prices sharply higher, but overall there is a greater likelihood that prices will drop in the next few years, and perhaps sharply,” Lynch wrote.

But John Person, president of National Futures Advisory Service, said he wouldn’t be inclined to call a top “until we close back under the $118 level, which was close to the high made last month.”

All of which is of little concern to drivers, who watched as the retail price for a gallon of regular gasoline climbed to another record of $3.962 Friday, according to AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge Report. That’s up 24.2% from a year ago.

Source: Oil Little Changed – Gallon of Regular Sets Another Record