A resident looks at the price of gasoline as she fuels up his car at a gas station in Miami's South Beach, Florida April 23, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    NEW YORK, May 6 (Xinhua) -- Oil futures hit a new record high of over 122 U.S. dollars a barrel Tuesday due to predictions of future price hike and the continuing concerns on supply shortage.

    Light, sweet crude oil for June delivery surged to a all-time record high of 122.73 dollars a barrel, before falling back to settle at 121.84 dollars with 1.87 dollars up on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

    The Supply shortages will probably send oil price to between 150 dollars and 200 dollars a barrel within next six months to two years, said a report released by Goldman Sachs on Monday. The prediction seemed to have motivated most of Tuesday's buying of oil.

    Concerns on supply shortfall in major oil exporters like Nigeria, Iraq, Mexico and Russia also contributed to the lift of crude futures.

    The U.S. Energy Department raised its forecasts for oil and gas. But higher energy prices will cut demand more than previously thought, it warned.

    In London, Brent North Sea crude for June delivery rose 2.34 to settle at 117.99 dollars.

OPEC chief: oil prices would go higher

    BEIJING, April 21 -- OPEC Secretary-General Abdullah el al-Badri said Sunday oil prices would likely go higher and that the group was ready to raise production if the price pressure was due to a shortage of supply -- something he doubted.

    "Oil prices, there is a common understanding that has nothing to do with supply and demand," al-Badri said on the sidelines of an energy conference in Rome.Full Story

Weak dollar not sole reason for high oil prices

    VIENNA, April 17 (Xinhua) -- OPEC's average daily oil prices have set records 16 times since the beginning of this year and soared to 106.65 U.S. dollars per barrel (dpb) Wednesday, the Vienna-based cartel said Thursday.

    Oil prices have surged higher since 2007 and regularly hit new peaks, so that price breaking is no longer news but a "routine" matter.

    International oil market analysts attribute the high prices mainly to the large amount of speculation in the commodity market, inspired by the weak dollar.  Full story

OPEC to maintain world oil demand forecast

    VIENNA, April 15 (Xinhua) -- World oil demand this year is forecast to grow by 1.2 million barrels daily to an average of 87 million barrels per day, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said Tuesday.

    The forecast maintains OPEC's estimation last month, despite soaring global oil prices. Full Story 

Peru confirms over 1 billion barrels of oil reserves

    LIMA, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Petro-Tech Peruana oil company on Wednesday confirmed reserves of 1.132 billion barrels of high quality oil off the coasts of the Peruvian provinces of Piura and Lambayaque.

    Exploration chief of the Argentine capital Petro-Tech Peruana oil enterprise, Enrique Gonzalez, said that the San Miguel oil well alone, in Piura, has 323 million barrels of oil. Full Story

Dollar mixed against major currencies

    New York, April 17 (Xinhua) -- The dollar was lower against the pound but higher against the euro and other major currencies on Thursday.

    Weak economic data has put fresh pressures on the dollar. The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose by 17,000 last week, the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday. Full Story