Crude Will Reach the $60s "Within Months", Predicts RBC, but Schork Insists We're Spiraling to the $40s

Today's forecasts are made as oil climbs again on the strength of another Libyan outage.

A second shutdown this month of Libya's Sharara oilfield caused crude on Monday to climb towards $56 per barrel - but instead of experts dismissing the gain as a temporary blip as they have in past weeks, they are now foreseeing a steady price hike - by as much as 20 percent within a few months.

A militant group blocking a pipeline linking the Sharara oilfield to a terminal caused traders to propel West Texas Intermediate upward by 84 cents to settle at $53.08 and Brent to climb by 74 cents to settle at $55.98, just 10 cents less than the one-month high reached on Friday.

Although it's only been several trading days since crude was lifted from a multi-week slump, Helima Croft, head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, is convinced the commodity will climb to the low $60s within months.

She told CNBC, "We're coming out of refinery maintenance season, so, we're going to start to see draws of the U.S. inventory - those high U.S. inventory numbers have really been depressing prices."

Croft added that the summer driving season will also give prices a "boost," and that demand won't fall anytime soon; she also predicts crude will get support from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) production cutback, which she believes - unlike many other observers - will be extended to the end of the year: "If you are sovereign head of state in one of these oil producing countries, you fear more than anything a price reversal back into the $40s or the $30s."

The respected strategist even suggested that prices could climb higher, if last week's U.S. airstrikes against Syria give hard line candidates a boost in Iran's presidential election in May, and if tensions grow between Russia and the Sunni Arab Gulf Cooperation Council states.

But if Croft is proven correct, then a price rally will also encourage U.S. shale producers to increase output, especially now that stock draws are said to be finally appearing in coming weeks; this in turn will further mitigate OPEC's efforts and increase the global glut, perhaps to levels that outstrip demand.

However, not everyone shares the RBC outlook: Stephen Schork, editor of The Schork Report, noted that oil rigs in North America have doubled, "we're now looking at the highest levels of production since January of 2016," and by the end of the year U.S. production will be nearing a record of 9.4 million barrels per day - and that these factors will keep prices in the mid $50s in the spot market.

He added that when the third quarter approaches "and the demand season begins to ebb, expect prices to migrate down into the mid $40 range."

Last week in the aftermath of the Syrian bombings, Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, doubted that the rally will last, due to fundamentals: "The world still awash in oil; the risk of this developing and impacting oil supplies from the region, especially from Iraq, is very limited."