Oil price has reached a record high above $142 a barrel on Friday, and are expected to reach around $170 this year, owing to a weak dollar and geopolitical unrest.

Conumers are blaming the surge on insufficient output from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries(OPEC). However, OPEC argues that the speculators are responsible for pushing up crude in reaction to a falling dollar and tensions in oil-producing countries, such as Iran, Iraq and Nigeria.

Oil becomes cheaper because of the weak US currency, which results in increased oil exports, thus increasing the demand for the commodity.

According to Mark Pervan, a senior commodities analyst at the Australian & New Zealand Bank in Melbourne, "The U.S. dollar is down and there are many high-level geopolitical news items, particlularly in the Middle-East, that are pushing prices up."

The US department of Energy and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah are claiming an increase in the output, meanwhile the Kingdom's London embassy released a statement last week that outlined a plan to increase the output by 200,000 barrels a day.

Prices also shot up on Monday after militants blew up a pipeline over the weekend in Nigeria.

The U.S. light crude for August delivery was up $1.50 at $141.70 a barrel, slightly below record high of $142.99 struck on friday.

A senior dealer at a European bank said that the recovery of the US currency is difficult becuase of the surge in the oil prices and a slide in the US stock market.