Will Gas Cost $5 a Gallon by 2012?

That’s what the former president of Shell Oil, John Hofmeister, believes, and plenty of other analysts predict gas prices will climb in the coming decade as well.

During a TV interview, Hofmeister acknowledged that his prediction was the worst-case scenario over the next two years. Other analysts, including Tom Kloza of Oil Price Information Service, see gasoline reaching $5 a gallon in the new decade, but not by 2012.

Gas prices again rose above $3, at $3.05, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. It happened over the Christmas holiday, which has never seen the $3-per-gallon mark as a national average, Kloza said.

The last time a gallon of regular unleaded gas cost this much was in October 2008, according to CNN Money. Overall, gas prices have increased 89% since December 2008, when gas cost just $1.616 per gallon.

The predictions take into account a growing global economy tightening the world’s oil supply. Holfmesiter cites China’s and India’s growth and President Barack Obama’s crackdown on offshore drilling as the primary reasons for the short-term gas hike.

There’s little that Americans can do to affect the price of oil, according to CBS News. According to the EIA, while it will take developed countries like the United States, Japan and Europe until after 2020 to reach 2007 levels of oil consumption, the developing economies of the world will bring us back to pre-2007 levels of oil consumption by the end of this year.

Ex-Shell President Sees $5 gas in 2012 (CNN Money)