It’s “an empire ending problem,” says Robert Zubrin. He’s referring to the outflow of capital from the United States of America to the oil exporting countries. OPEC now takes in more cash than the U.S. government.

With the price of oil surging above $126, one oil price prediction, which puts oil past $187 a barrel, is right on track.

Last December, Money Morning’s Keith Fitz-Gerald publicly made the oil price prediction that oil would reach $187 a barrel within three years. In mid-March, he reiterated this price prediction.

Keith says: “We are burning through supplies at a rate that’s four times to five times faster than we’re discovering new reserves.

When Goldman Sachs energy strategist Argun Murti made his oil price prediction that the black goo would “super-spike” past $200 in six months to two years’ time, how aware was he of the affects this prediction would have on the price of oil?

Murti’s price prediction seems to have been one of the main drivers behind oil’s climb yesterday, with the AP news wire carrying the headline: “Oil prices rise to record near $123 a barrel on prediction of $200 oil, supply concerns.”

An new oil price prediction by Goldman Sachs has sent crude oil prices past $122 a barrel. According to the AP news wire, the Goldman oil price prediction that crude oil could rise to $150 to $200 within two years seemed to motivate much of Tuesday’s buying.

Light, sweet crude for June delivery blasted past $122 a barrel to $122.47 before retreating to $122.26 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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.

With oil prices nearing $120 a barrel following supply outages in Nigeria and the North Sea, one oil price prediction is looking scarily accurate.

In December, Money Morning Investment Director Keith Fitz-Gerald publicly forecast that oil prices will reach $187 a barrel within three years. In mid-March, he reiterated this projection.

With crude oil prices climbing above $117 a barrel investors are looking for oil price predictions and gas price predictions that may give them clues about oil’s trajectory.

Marc Faber, author of the Gloom Boom & Doom Report, argues that a slowdown in the Chinese economy could put downward on oil prices.

“Let us assume that the unthinkable happens,” says Marc in The Daily Reckoning. “China’s economy slows down sharply, or even contracts – and there are reasons why it could.

A plummeting greenback, inflationary fears fanned by the U.S. central bank and soaring global demand are combining to fuel a record advance in crude oil prices.