It was being forecasted till only a few months ago that crude oil would sell for 200 dollars per barrel, but the same has now come crashing down to one-fifth of that level!Having seen the crude prices slip from its peak of over 147 dollars a barrel in July to below 50 dollars late last week, the industry experts now believe that the most-keenly monitored commodity could see a level of 40 dollars in the next few weeks, as demand slump is unlikely to subside in the current economic scenario.They even do not rule out a possibility of 30 dollars if negative triggers continue to surface.Only in May this year, global financial services major Goldman Sachs' energy analyst Arjun Murti, an Indian-origin person also known as 'oil guru,' had forecasted that crude prices could soon see a level of 200 dollars.However, Goldman Sachs had to revise down its short-term oil price forecast after the prices started falling from its peak around the middle of this year."We cannot rule out the possibility of crude oil touching 30 dollar per barrel if any new trigger crops up in future.However, taking into account the current scenario, the maximum fall should be to 40 dollar per barrel," Mumbai-based brokerage firm Kotak Commodities' Associate Vice President Si Kannan said.Amid vicious world economic scenario, nobody can predict exactly how would be the price movement of crude oil, he said, adding that logically prices should stablise between 42-60 dollar a barrel.Crude oil has lost about 100 dollar of value on each barrel within five months to trade at near 49 dollar now.
