Analyst believes oil prices are too high

A barrel of oil these days goes for more than $74 on the market - but Peter Beutel, president of Cameron Hanover, thinks that figure should be a lot lower.

"I honestly think that if there were no investors using oil as an asset that the price of oil right now would be $10 or $15 or $18, but it wouldn't be anywhere near where it is," Beutel told CNBC.

Oil is the world's most traded commodity and powers everything from factories to automobiles. If the commodity weren't traded as an investment instrument by financial players to safeguard against debased currencies, Beutel believes that its price could fall by $60 or more, thanks in part to an abundance of the substance - the most in 27 years.

"Why is it 27 years? Because that's how far our records go back. It's probably the most in 50 or 100 years," Beutel added. "We've got 50 million barrels of crude more than we had two years ago. We have 176 million of distillate. When I started in the business back in 1980 we used to think to ourselves: 'Gee, we would love it if we had 140 million barrels of distillates to start the winter.'"

Of course, Beutel's view is challenged by many other analysts. Jonathan Barratt, managing director at Commodity Broking Services, thinks that the price of crude should actually rise to around $85 per barrel.

In 2008, oil prices reached a record peak of $145-150 a barrel, according to government figures.