BERLIN, July 6, 2008 (AFP) - German insurance giant Allianz expects the oil price to hit 200 dollars a barrel in the next two years, according to a press report to be published Monday.

'I cannot imagine that post-2010 we will have an oil price of below 200 dollars a barrel in the long term,' Allianz board member Joachim Faber told Monday's edition of Der Tagesspiegel newspaper.

In May, US investment bank Goldman Sachs's star analyst Arjun Murti also predicted that the oil price could strike 200 dollars within the next two years.

'The possibility of 150-200 dollars per barrel seems increasingly likely over the next six to 24 months,' he said in a research note.

On Thursday, the oil price soared to new records on the back of a weak dollar and supply concerns, reaching 146.69 dollars a barrel in London and 145.85 dollars in New York.