Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs predicts the price of oil could hit $100 per barrel next year and that demand may reach a new record high in 2022 and 2023.
Damien Courvalin, the bank’s head of energy research, explained that soaring inflation in the US and elsewhere would eventually affect oil services and lead to a price hike.
The other scenario, he says, is if the demand for oil overtakes supply as economies recover from the pandemic.
Demand for oil was already at record highs before the Omicron coronavirus strain hit, and demand for air travel should continue to recover, Courvalin said in an energy outlook briefing.
“You see how we will average a new record high in demand in 2022, and again, in 2023,” he added.
People in Europe, the US, and Asia already face record-high gasoline prices this winter. Consumer groups call the rise unjustified, saying the value of crude is far from the record high, which was over $147 per barrel in 2008.
Brent crude is currently trading at just above $73 per barrel, while US crude benchmark WTI is selling for $71 a barrel.