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Traders conduct business in the oil options pit at the NYMEX as oil nears $104 per barrel on March 4, 2008 in New York. Oil prices continued to rise ahead of the OPEC production meeting where it is predicted that OPEC will not increase oil supply to ease record-high prices. (UPI Photo/Monika Graff)

WASHINGTON, March 20 (UPI) -- Growing demand in Asia, political instability and the falling dollar have all been blamed for high oil prices, but many, including OPEC, increasingly see speculators driving the price of crude.

Rising oil prices, which climbed from just above $10 a barrel in the late 1990s to around $100 now, can be attributed to "political tensions and speculation rather than supply shortages," Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, Qatar's deputy premier and energy minister, told al-Jazeera this week.

That view has been echoed by others who say the value of the dollar, which has been hammered by other currencies, is leading to investment in commodities as a hedge against the falling greenback.

James Hamilton, a professor of economics at the University of California, San Diego, says market fundamentals -- strong demand and tight supplies -- drove oil prices between 2002 and 2007, but this year the reasons for the spike aren't the same.

"Not just oil prices but every storable commodity has been surging," he said. "It's a mistake to be looking into factors in the oil markets alone."