There’s one question all the business pages were asking over the weekend: will the oil price hit $100 a barrel this week..?

Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. Personally, I couldn’t care less if it breaches this level this week or not.

Whether $100 oil happens this week, next week or next year will not make any difference in the long term: it is going to happen and it is going to happen soon.

High oil prices are here already – and anyone who thinks they are not here to stay should have a sharp word with their own intellect.

This column is all about strategic investing. It’s about spotting trends, then taking positions that will help you to become a long-term winner. It doesn’t really matter to me whether US heating oil stocks have gone up or down this week… it is irrelevant whether or not this winter is cold or warm… even a late storm in the Gulf of Mexico wouldn’t matter.

Of course all these affect the short-term oil price. However, I have never been a short termist. The only thing you need to remember is that demand is soaring and supplies are waning. Over the next ten years this problem is going to be more acute. I see rising oil prices as a one-way bet and I don’t care if some here-today, gone-tomorrow data from the US sends the oil price lower.

Yet more evidence of the demand issues emerged last week. On Friday, the International Energy Agency (IEA) released its widely-watched World Energy Outlook 2007. The tone of the report and its launch was even more urgent than I expected.

“WEO-2007 demonstrates more clearly than ever that, if governments don’t change their policies, oil and gas imports, coal use and greenhouse-gas emissions are set to grow inexorably through to 2030 – even faster, in fact, than in last year’s Outlook.”

It described the consequences of unfettered growth in global energy demand as “alarming for all countries.” If governments around the world stick with existing policies (which was the underlying premise in its reference scenario) the world’s energy needs would be well over 50% higher in 2030 than today.

Just think what that would do to prices…

The growth in energy demand is undeniable. As China and India rapidly develop it is only right that the new middle classes will want to enjoy the benefits of a wealthy lifestyle that we have enjoyed in the west for some time. It will take a lot of energy to improve the lives of two billion people.

Indeed, the IEA forecast that China and India together would account for 45% of the increase in global primary energy demand in this scenario. It also forecast that the fuel source that will show the most rapid growth is coal.

Coal is not exactly clean, but it is cheap.

As oil prices rise then coal gets more and more attractive as an energy source. That’s why I told readers to get into an outstanding coal play in the last issue of my Outstanding Investments newsletter.

The IEA sees the main driver of coal growth being power-sector demand in China and India. It calculated that this trend would lead to a 57% growth in global energy-related emissions of carbon dioxide. Indeed, China is expected to overtake the US to become the world’s biggest emitter this year, while India becomes the third-biggest emitter by around 2015.

Oil imports into the two Asian countries also looks set to soar. In the IEA reference scenario, total net oil imports in China and India jump from 5.4 mb/d in 2006 to 19.1 mb/d in 2030. This is staggering. Indeed, this level of oil imports is more than the combined imports of the US and Japan today.

Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said on Sunday that Opec oil ministers would discuss raising oil output again at an upcoming meeting. Ultimately this will not matter. The price of oil is only going one way. P.S. If you enjoyed this article then sign up for Smart Commodities UK. It’s dedicated to searching out the investment trends that could provide our biggest profit opportunities for the next decade…

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