London, June 11:

The Russians undermined OPEC’s attempts to talk down the oil market yesterday by warning that crude prices could almost double to $250 a barrel within 18 months.

The prediction from Alexey Miller, chairman of Gazprom, came as the price of oil leaped to $137.10 a barrel even though OPEC insisted everyone was already ‘panicking’ unnecessarily and stressed there were no shortages.

Gazprom said the higher crude prices it expected would drag gas values up too. “We think oil will reach $250 a barrel in the foreseeable future,” said Miller, insisting that high demand rather than financial speculation was the primary factor, an argument that runs counter to thatput forward by OPEC.

The comments came 24 hours after Tony Hayward, the BP chief executive, said supply constraints were partly responsible for the very high crude prices so far. A spokesman for Gazprom, which is also one of Russia’s largest crude producers, expected the price to hit $250 some time in 2009. The company exports gas to Europe at prices linked to oil products for historic reasons and Miller said the current gas price was $410 per 1,000 cubic metres.

Analysts said the latest Russian energy estimates were hard to support and noted they were not backed up with specified research data. “It’scrazy, maybe they know something we don’t,” said one. Abdullah al-Badri, the secretary general of OPEC, had earlier appealed for calm.

“Really we need some calm. We are panicking too much,” Badri told a global energy summit. “The situation is unbearable as far as we are concerned. I want to say, there is no shortage now and in the future.” Saudi Arabia said on Monday it would soon call for a meeting to discuss what it called unjustified rises in prices. Badri supported holding such a meeting, which he said might happen before the next scheduled OPEC gathering on September 9.