Oil rose in London to around $100/barrel. The reasons is the usual suspects: political unrest in Egypt.

“The risk of contagion will keep prices above $100 a barrel for a while,” said Christopher Bellew, senior broker with Bache Commodities Ltd. in London. “Much has still to be settled in Egypt, so there is still the specter of unrest spreading to oil-producing countries.”

Hedge funds and other large speculators have increased net long positions by 17%

Price at the pump won’t be going down any time soon

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?

While we drivers do not like the direction gas prices are taking one bit (that would be inching up), investors in Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) for gas and oil are seeing opportunity knocking.

Gas is up a nickel a gallon, and $3/gal is the target many experts are pointing to. Oil prices are up to $82/barrel. Tension in Nigeria. China still building up its reserves.

Check out the charts in the article.

It all looks like a classic case of buy low, sell high to us. Might be a good time to get some protection for your fuel budget.

US Energy Sec, Dr. Steven Chu, doesn’t think so.

Wide swings in oil prices are difficult for industries to manage and the U.S. government is concerned about another price spike, Chu said.

Even $80 oil is making him nervous.

“We’ve repeatedly said what the world wants and needs is stable prices,” Chu said. “They have been inching up recently and it’s a little bit concerning.”

We’d be doing some hedging here instead of counting on Dr. Chu to do it for us.

Gas prices hit a new 2009 high last week. An average of $2.58/gal.

Most conclude the weak $$ is to blame. Last we read, inventories were robust, but now the EIA says that oil & gas supplies have dropped.

Even OPEC says that $80/barrel oil is a little too high given the fragile economy. It blames the oil speculators.

OPEC isn’t “telling you that oil is a good buy at these prices,” analyst Stephen Schork said. “The only people who are telling you that oil is worth $85 (a barrel) is Wall Street.”