After the close of regular floor trading, crude hit a record high of $127.82/bbl in overnight electronic trading May 16. "Higher prices are being driven by the expected increase in petroleum product demand from China as the country recovers from the May 12 earthquake," said analysts in the Houston office of Raymond James & Associates Inc. They said the front-month gas contract recovered most of its previous loss and also was trading higher.

Analysts at Pritchard Capital Partners said, "Oil prices are sharply higher this morning even as President [George W.] Bush begins his visit designed to beseech the Saudis for some extra crude production." They credited "strong technical support, the normal pre-weekend jitters," and a May 16 forecast by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. that the average price of West Texas Intermediate oil will increase in the second half of 2008 by 32% to $141/bbl from an earlier prediction of $107/bbl. Earlier this month Goldman Sachs analysts said crude prices could escalate to $150-200/bbl within 2 years (OGJ Online, May 6, 2008).