High oil prices threaten future prosperity

A FEW key pointers to the state of the oil industry have emerged in the past few days suggesting the chances of us ever seeing oil going back to $40 per barrel (pb), let alone to the pre war on Iraq days of $24-28pb could be gone for ever.

Sceptics, however, suggest there is enough oil to go round. The Press Association earlier in the week reported a claim by American Tim Evans, senior energy analyst at Thompson Financial’s IFR Energy Service in New York, that prices could slump back to $28 before many months are out.

His $400 dollar a pop monthly energy report is snapped by the top players in the industry. Evans believes we are in nothing more than a speculative bubble.