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Oil Advances on Demand for Dollar Hedge, Morgan Stanley Outlook Grant Smith Crude oil rose for a second day as demand grew for a hedge against a weakening dollar and Morgan Stanley said prices may reach $150 within a month because of accelerating Asian consumption amid declining inventories. The bank, one of Wall Street's two biggest energy traders, expects a ``spike'' in oil because ``Asia is taking an unprecedented share'' of Middle East exports, wrote analyst Ole Slorer. Investors hedging against the dollar's 6.5 percent drop this year have spurred oil, gold and corn to records. ``One-hundred and fifty as a target is not unrealistic,'' said Gerrit Zambo, an oil trader for BayernLB in Munich. ``Another $15 on top of the record could be the matter of a week. It's mainly driven by financial players as the euro gets stronger again.'' Crude oil for July delivery rose as much as $2.79, or 2.2 percent, to $130.58 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was at $129.75 at 11:53 a.m. London time. Futures reached a record $135.09 a barrel on May 22 and are up 97 percent from a year earlier. Yesterday, oil gained $5.49, or 4.5 percent, to $127.79 a barrel. It was the biggest one-day gain since March 26. Workers at a division of Chevron Corp. in Nigeria have threatened to strike over working conditions, the Vanguard said, citing Comrade Omare, a labor union leader. Daily production of about 450,000 barrels of crude oil may be threatened, the Lagos- based newspaper reported. BNP Forecast BNP Paribas SA, France's biggest bank, boosted its 2008 outlook by 19 percent to $124 on climbing Asian demand for diesel fuel and kerosene to generate electricity and run buses and trucks.
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