Oil prices heading for $200 per barrel, Jim Rogers warns

Oil prices could more than double from present levels to higher than $200 per barrel, Jim Rogers, the US investor who co-founded the Quantum Fund with George Soros, warned yesterday.

Mr Rogers, who at the beginning of 2009 urged investors to sell sterling, said crude prices were set to rise because the world was running out of known reserves of oil. "Maybe there is a lot of oil in the world, but if there is, we don't know where it is or how to get to it," he said, He suggested that prices would pass $150 per barrel and probably $200 per barrel.

His predictions come against the backdrop of a recent rally in world oil prices. Though the benchmark Brent crude price fell below $97 per barrel last night as traders sought to bank profits amid worries over China, they remain within striking distance of $100 per barrel.