Gas Prices Could Hit $5 a Gallon in 2011

Oil may hit or exceed the all-time high of $148 per barrel – leading to $5 a gallon gas in the United States in 2011, predicts one financial expert. A former Shell oil executive said it could happen as soon as 2012. Both blame bans on offshore drilling by the Obama administration.

Jerome Corsi, who says he is a New York Times bestselling author and the Senior Managing Director in the Financial Services Group at Gilford Securities as well as a senior staff writer for WND.com, says at his website RedAlert.WND.Com, that OPEC members Iran, Venezuela and Libya have weighed in favor of the $100/barrel target, rejecting Saudi Arabia's preference for prices centered at the $75 level, the level that oil has traded above since September, according to Bloomberg.

Corsi’s timeline is a little more aggressive than one put forth by former Shell Oil executive John Hofmeister. He told FoxNews.com, the problem would start with "stockouts" at select gas stations during the summer and during bad weather and then spread. He said those states farthest from refineries would get hit the worst and that in order to maintain some consistency, local and state governments might resort to the kind of rationing they employed in the early '70s -- when drivers with even-numbered license plates would buy gas on even days, and vice-versa.

Both men are touting the recent Obama administration ban on offshore drilling as a potential cause of $5 a gallon gas. criticized the administration for cracking down on domestic oil drilling in the wake of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. "It is pure politics that keeps us from drilling more of our own resources," he said. Corsi concurred. He said, “Clearly the decision to ban offshore drilling is a concession to the environmental groups on the political left that support President Obama.”

Photo courtesy of Shell Oil