With oil prices soaring ever higher, not even Saudi Arabia who stepped in last week, and
vowed to increase its production by 25% if necessary, could prevent an imminent high
and rising oil prices. This should have been good news for Nigeria; but for the import
dependent structure guiding the oil industry and the application of international base price
for determining local prices.

Such price assurances as received from Saudi Arabia portends an ability to drain a few
dollars off oil futures, the reality remains that there is nothing Saudi Arabia or anyone else
can do about rising oil prices if an escalation of crisis is pursued. In fact, crude oil is still on
track to reach $150 a barrel by mid-summer.

Oil prices started rising much earlier in 2012 than they did in 2011. The price for crude oil
broke above $100 a barrel on February 13, 2012, two weeks earlier than last year. The
key driver of higher gas prices at present is actually the world's oil markets coupled with a
heightened uncertainty about what's going on in Iran and the Middle East. President Barack
Obama said in Oklahoma recently that "The main reason the gas prices are high right now
is because people are worried about what's happening with Iran," "It doesn't have to do
with domestic oil production. It has to do with the oil markets looking and saying, you know
what, if something happens there could be trouble and so we're going to price oil higher just
in case."

Read More: http://myfinancialintelligence.com/index.php/2011-09-27-04-13-15/energy/13515-crude-oil-price-watch