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Oil prices hit 127 dollars on Goldman forecast

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-05-17 01:00

NEW YORK  -- Crude futures topped 127 US dollars a barrel Friday after investment bank Goldman Sachs raised its oil price forecast for the second half of this year.

This undated file photo shows the headquarter of OPEC in Vienna. Crude futures topped 127 US dollars a barrel Friday after investment bank Goldman Sachs raised its oil price forecast for the second half of this year. [Agencies]

Goldman Sachs Friday raised its average oil price forecast for the second half of this year to 141 dollars from 107 dollars a barrel.

"To balance trend global GDP growth of 3.8 percent against trend supply growth of 1.0 percent, prices need to rise on average 14 percent from here in the second half of 2008," the bank said in a report, adding that "resource protectionism" by many oil producing countries was curbing supply growth.

Light, sweet crude futures for June delivery touched 127.82 dollars a barrel in the electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The previous peak for oil was 126.98 dollars a barrel set on Tuesday.