Oil barrel price skyrockets on foreign markets. Petrol exceeds 6 lei

Forecasts are not optimistic on long term either, with an IMFreport published at the end of last week saying the global economyis entering a period where oil will be increasingly difficult tofind, with price increases likely to occur. The IMF is not alone inmaking such forecasts. Erste analysts recently said the oil barrelcould reach 150 dollars this year, and did not rule out the200-dollar mark if Saudi Arabia, the second-largest global oilproducer, were in turn caught in the wave of uprisings. In themeantime, violence is continuing in Libya, one of the top 20 oilproducers worldwide, with the violence there being in fact the mainreason for the oil barrel price increase at the end of lastweek.

A number of 28 people were killed in Syria on Friday after securityforces opened fire on the demonstrators, with hundreds of Egyptianscontinuing to protest in Cairo against the head of the militaryinstitution that has been running the country since Hosni Mubarak'sousting. All these international events have left their mark on thelocal price of petrol. European statistics show that Romanian oilplayers are among the quickest to raise prices, with the Romanianmarket being in the top ten of European countries that raised pumpprices between January 3rd 2011 and April 4th 2011. The price ofRomanian petrol has increased more than in Austria, Italy, Polandand Bulgaria, countries that are poorer in resources than Romania,which produces about half of what it needs from its ownresources.