Brent benchmark crude price to crack $160 a barrel

London - Analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch predicted a 30% chance of Brent crude going as high as $160 per barrel this year.

What with the turmoil in the middle east, said Sabine Schels, a commodity strategist for the Merrill Lynch organization in London, “With oil demand expanding rapidly and Libya production down by at lest 1 million barrels per day, we forecast Brent crude oil price to average $122 a barrel in the second quarter, and believe prices could briefly break through $140 in the next three months.”

According to the analyst, “Commodity prices should move broadly higher in 2011 on robust economic growth in emerging markets, despite relatively weaker growth in developed markets.”