Be

$5 a gallon!

As oil soars toward $100 a barrel, it's likely, experts say

BY PAUL H.B. SHIN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Tight petroleum supplies amid soaring demand could drive crude oil prices above $100 a barrel by this winter, energy experts warned yesterday.

That could translate into gas prices of more than $5 a gallon at the pump and spike home heating oil an additional 30%, analysts said.

Iran's deputy oil minister, Hadi Nejad Hosseinian, fueled the paranoia yesterday by predicting that crude could hit $100 a barrel by the end of the year - $26 above even yesterday's near-record price.

The problem is that Iran, the world's fourth-largest producer of crude, is just one of several hot spots in danger of boiling over, experts said.

"There's so much that could go wrong right now," said Phil Flynn, an energy analyst at Alaron Trading in Chicago. "This is the scariest time we've seen in oil in a long period of time."

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posted by ... @ 12:33 PM