Global oil prices are expected to top 100 U.S. dollars per barrel in 2011, with abundant liquidity in the global market and a better world economy overall.

The U.S. Department of Energy has upped its forecast for next year's price of the country's benchmark crude, that's the West Texas Intermediate, by nearly 1 dollar. The Chief Economist at the International Energy Agency also says the era of low crude prices has ended.

Meanwhile investment banks, like Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs, also expect the price of crude to top 100 dollars per barrel. They attribute the rise to brighter prospects for global economic recovery, a weak dollar as well as strong demand. But they also see oil output edging down between 2011 and 2013, as the global financial crisis has delayed some oil projects.

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