Signs Point to Prolonged Trend of High Oil Prices

OPEC ministers and the U.S. Energy Department delivered a chilling message to consumers Monday: High energy costs are here to stay.

At a meeting in Kuwait, members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries hinted at possible production cuts next year
The combo helped roil energy futures trading and sparked fresh fears of another oil-fed assault on the economy, which has weathered record prices with little damage.

“The best you can hope for is that oil maintains an erratic uptrend rather than a spiky uptrend,” said Stephen Leeb, president of Leeb Capital Management in New York. Leeb, author of the Oil Factor, a book predicting an era of turbulent oil prices, echoed other petroleum prognosticators Monday in outlining a future in which oil will see more ups than downs.

LA Times