Oil price rises speed up
Ever faster rises in crude prices are prompting the question - are we heading for a new oil crisis? Oil has been hitting new record highs virtually every day. Energy experts and even OPEC ministers are now talking about $200 a barrel being increasingly likely in the not too distant future.
The average price of US light crude in the month of May has risen from $25 a barrel in 2002 and now to over $126 on Friday.
OPEC General Secretary Abdullah Salem El-Badri said Thursday that the rise of oil prices should be attributed to volatility on financial markets and lots of speculations aroused by depreciation of the U.S. dollar.
He insisted the oil market was well-supplied, saying some OPEC member countries even could not find buyers for part of their oil.
Heading straight for a PERFECT STORM