The results of a survey by KPMG's Global Energy Institute suggest financial executives believe oil prices will drop "significantly" from the current record level to less than $100 a barrel by the end of the year, the Economic Times of India reported.

The survey results were released as crude future prices surged to a record of more than $126 a barrel Friday, fueled by weakness in the U.S. dollar, worries over supply disruptions and speculative demand.

Some 55 percent of the 372 financial executives from oil and gas companies surveyed by the GEI said they think the crude oil price will drop. Only about 9 percent said they think it will close at more than $120.

About 21 percent of the executives think oil will close between $101 and $110, while 15 percent think it may end between $111 and $120.

The results also suggest 44 percent of those surveyed felt prices would peak by the end of this year, but 39 percent thought prices would not peak until after 2010.

EnCana Corp. (NYSE:ECA) splits

EnCana Corp., Canada's biggest natural gas player, has split into two firms.

The company said in a statement it will divide into two separate energy companies: one an oil company and the other focusing on unconventional gas.

The proposed reorganization would create a publicly traded integrated oil company with oil sands as the growth driver, the company's board of directors said.

Investments in oil sands have been increasing as oil prices have reached record highs, driving research into alternative sources.

The new company will be called IntegratedOilCo and will focus on the development of EnCana's Canadian oil sands assets and refinery interests in the United States. EnCana has a major foothold in the oil sands, with 6.5 billion barrels of recoverable oil at its Christina Lake and Foster Creek operations.

The second company, GasCo, will be aimed at growing Canada's unconventional gas reserves. GasCo is expected to become the second-biggest natural gas producer in North America.

EnCana Chief Executive Randy Eresman will run GasCo, and the company's current chief financial officer, Brian Ferguson, will run IOCo. The transaction is expected to be completed in early 2009.

Iran says South Stream projects will go ahead

Iranian officials said three belated gas projects in its giant South Pars field will go onstream.

The projects are expected to go online in July, a project manager said. The state-run Pars Oil and Gas Co. said that phases six, seven and eight in the South Pars project were delayed for about two years but are expected to be fully operational by the end of March 2009, the Pakistan Observer reported.

"The first stage of the three phases will start production with 400 million cubic feet of gas per day," said Project Manager Mohammad Javad Shams.

The three phases are expected to produce about 3.6 billion cubic feet, 158,000 barrels of condensates and 4,450 tons of liquefied petroleum gas on a daily basis.

"This is the country's biggest gas development project. Each phase will yield around $7 million per day," Shams said.

The development of the giant offshore gas field was delayed because of a lack of investment and an increase in costs of development.

The project is a joint venture by Iranian and foreign companies, including Norway's Statoil, which has now merged with Norsk Hydro and has provided about 15 percent of the project's total capital expenditure of $2.68 billion, Shams said.

A Korea-Japan-Iran consortium has built an onshore gas refinery to process the gas from the offshore fields. Most of the gas from the three phases will be injected in oil fields of the southern province of Khuzestan to compensate for the low pressure that cuts the oil recovery rate.

The South Pars gas field in the Gulf, with an estimated 500 trillion cubic feet of gas, holds about 8 percent of the world's gas reserves.

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Closing oil prices, May 12, 3 p.m. London

Brent crude oil: $123.93

West Texas Intermediate crude oil: $125.19

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(e-mail: energy@upi.com)