A fellow blogger over at oilprice.com speculates that oil prices may be going as high as $100/barrel by the end of the year.

…the fundamental assumptions of the oil industry upside down, and that sharply higher oil prices were in the cards, probably $100/barrel by year end.

Major oil companies with deep pockets at risk were rushing to offload their existing offshore leases and partnerships in producing wells to avoid BP’s potential $30 billion hickey.

While we feel $100/barrel is particularly high, it’s nearly impossible to overstress the importance of potential new federal regulations on gulf oil production. Consumers and fleet managers beware.

The US Department of Energy’s statistics wing has been forecasting dramatically lower levels of oil production every year since 2007. The significance? This international authority is suggesting real concerns in the supply and availability of oil in the next twenty years. Peak oil will soon be upon us.

Needless to say this would lead to skyrocketing oil prices, decreasing consumer demand for automobiles and raising costs for fleet managers and business owners. That is, of course, unless they have some sort of fuel protection program.

How bad can the BP oil leak be for the Gulf & for the US? Pretty bad - and we can’t see all of the goop underwater.

Oil prices up today, even though futures don’t really seem to be trading on supply and demand. Oil has a life of its own

If that’s not enough for you, forecasters are predicting a fierce hurricane season. How will water & oil mix?

Poor, poor Haliburton didn’t make as much money this quarter due to contracts it signed when oil prices were slumping last year. (gasp!)

Oil and natural production has been rejuvenated in the big old Texas oil field of Granite Wash. The new technique? Drilling sideways.

Sources of growing oil demand: #1 China, #2 Saudia Arabia. Sort of the opposite of NIMBY.

Analysts thought the price of oil was heading higher. Enter the Goldman Sachs debacle and the volcano and down it goes. Probably not for long, though.

Steven Chu was really talking about the arguments of ASPO that we are already there, when he spoke of ‘Peak Oil.’

Just as you probably suspected, there is more than one reason behind the rise in oil prices. There seems to be more than an ample supply in the US, but never mind that.

Consider:

Unrest in Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer.

Improving US economy

Positive economic signs in China, the world’s 2nd biggest oil consumer, equals more fuel demand.

Are prices going up? Looks that way.

…major groups like IEA and EIA have projected strong demand for oil in the near future. According to Barclays oil prices were likely to rise to $80-$90 range. Quoting data from Joint Oil Data Initiative (JODI), which said that the Asian demand for oil was increasing by more than 2 million barrels per day, Barclays analysts Paul Horsnell said, “If Asian demand can grow at such rapid rates when prices are in the $70 to $80 range, then prices cannot stay in that range for much longer”.

OPEC is not changing output quotas at the moment. No help in sight there either.