The State of Qatar will invest about $8 billion in Libyan companies across various sectors, officials told the Financial Times.

The investment is one of many made by large, national sovereign wealth funds, or global cash barons, and will help Libya diversify its economy away from a reliance on hydro carbons.

According to the FT, Barwa Real Estate Co., an affiliate of the Qatar Investment Authority’s $40 billion property wing, agreed to invest $2 billion in state-owned Libyan Development and Investment Co to develop commercial, residential and leisure facilities.

Higher oil could lead to a worldwide economic collapse, according to a top analyst at Germany’s largest bank.

“Two-hundred dollar oil would break the back of the global economy,” Adam Sieminski, chief energy economist at Deutsche Bank AG (DB), told Bloomberg News in an interview yesterday (Wednesday) in Tokyo. “Next step after $200 would be global recession and bad news for everybody.”

Just a little over a year ago, $200 oil seemed out of the question…

Oil and energy expert Byron King says that high oil and gas prices are here to stay. And the consequences will be disastrous because of the our dependence on cheap and abundant energy.

However, crude oil prices fell for a second day today following a report that revealed demand for fuel in the US fell to an 18-month low.

Could this be a long-term trend? Is Byron out of step? Daniel Yergin, chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, told a congressional panel yesterday that US gas use could have peaked in 2007.

Oil, it seems, hits a new record high practically every week. And it’s got western politicians chewing the bedclothes.

Circuit City Falls, Cuts Dividend; Mitsubishi Working on Plug-In Line; Continental and United Buddy Up; Western Oil Back in Iraq; Citi CFO Sees More Trouble; Bear Stearns Execs Arrested; Transocean and BP Extend Drilling Contract; Bank of America to Takeover Countrywide by July.

High gas prices have forced Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) – the world’s largest oil company – from the retail gasoline business, the company said late Thursday afternoon.

Crude for July delivery jumped more than $5 per barrel in New York yesterday (Wednesday) to close at $136.38 per barrel on declines in U.S. supplies and refinery activity.

Russian authorities have issued a summons to Robert Dudley, Chief Executive of BP PLC’s (ADR: BP) regional joint venture TNK-BP Holding, as part of a tax probe into OAO TNK’s activities between 2001 and 2003.

A private-equity consortium headed up by Candover Partners Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Candover Investments PLC, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) has boosted its initial bid for U.K.-based Expro International Group PLC (PINK: EXPRF) by 8%, just narrowly beating out Halliburton Company’s (HAL) $3.4 billion (1.71 billion pounds) cash offer.

Exactly 12 months ago, West Texas Intermediate crude oil was trading at just under $63 a barrel.