New Delhi (PTI): It was being forecasted till only a few months ago that crude oil would sell for $200 per barrel, but the same has now come crashing down to one-fifth of that level!

Having seen the crude prices slip from its peak of over $147 a barrel in July to below $50 late last week, the industry experts now believe that the most-keenly monitored commodity could see a level of $40 in the next few weeks, as demand slump is unlikely to subside in the current economic scenario.

They even do not rule out a possibility of $30 if negative triggers continue to surface.

Only in May this year, global financial services major Goldman Sachs' energy analyst Arjun Murti, also known as 'oil guru,' had forecasted that crude prices could soon see a level of $200.

However, Goldman Sachs had to revise down its short-term oil price forecast after the prices started falling from its peak around the middle of this year.

"We cannot rule out the possibility of crude oil touching $30 per barrel if any new trigger crops up in future. However, taking into account the current scenario, the maximum fall should be to $40 per barrel," Mumbai-based brokerage firm Kotak Commodities' Associate Vice President Si Kannan said.

Amid vicious world economic scenario, nobody can predict exactly how would be the price movement of crude oil, he said, adding that logically prices should stablise between $42-60 a barrel.

Crude oil has lost about $100 of value on each barrel within five months to trade at near $49 now.

Another commodity brokerage firm Karvy Comtrade's Research Head Harish G said, "Crude is falling in response to global recession. It may fall to $40 as anything is possible in these kind of markets. But I see prices to trade at $45 per barrel in the short-term."

The declining demand due to recession in Eurozone, the US and Japan may pull down crude from $45 per barrel level, he said, adding that the US witnessed seven per cent decline in oil consumption on week on week basis.

However, Religare Commodities' Commodity Business Head Jayant Manglik strongly feels that crude might not slip below $40 per barrel level as liquidity pumped into major economies will start showing its effect in the coming days.

"Demand for oil will increase as money has been injected into the market," he said

Earlier this week, OPEC revised downwards its demand growth forecast for 2008 to 290,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 550,000 bpd previously following global recession fears, undercutting oil demand in developed economies and that, in turn, was pulling down overall world oil demand.

At the same time, The International Energy Agency lowered its forecast of 2009 world oil demand by 670,000 barrels per day to 86.5 million barrels per day.

However, experts said that the market is likely to take a pull back due to the possible production cut by OPEC and American winter demand.

OPEC, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, has called an emergency meeting on November 29 to discuss further slash in production.

"Any production cut may stabilise and consolidate the crude oil fall and prices will get support at $45 per barrel," Kotak's Kannan said.