WITNESS-So, he asked me, when will oil come down?

By Daniel Fineren

MADRID, July 13 (Reuters) - I sank into my seat in the air-conditioned taxi. Heading home from the World Petroleum Congress, exhausted by days pestering top oil producers about when prices might come down, I gazed at the parched scrubland around Madrid.

"Tell me," the taxi driver interrupted. "When are fuel prices going to fall?"

He peered accusingly in the rear-view mirror.

"Every day they just go up and up. But when are they going to go down?"

That question again.

Sitting in the suit I bought in Madrid for the event for 69 euros -- that's less than two tanks of diesel these days -- I was flattered to be mistaken for a wealthy expert.

Oil has risen seven-fold since 2001, scorching the fingers of any highly paid forecaster who said the rally was petering out. Goldman Sachs, the biggest investment bank in the commodities sector, has tipped prices to hit $200 a barrel within two years.

I knew I couldn't honestly tell the driver any relief was on the way, and my own survival strategy of cycling to work clearly wasn't going to work for him.

So I stole Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi's joke that if I knew how to predict the future I would be in Las Vegas making a fortune, and apologised for just being a reporter.

"You're a journalist? Oh, I'm sorry for having a go at you!" the driver apologised. "We have to go through really tight security to pick people up from that conference ... there must be some really rich people in there..."

Soaring prices have sparked protests across the world from those who need to use fuel -- from farmers and fishermen to truck and taxi drivers -- for their work.

AND WHAT ABOUT THE EURO?

My taxi driver's questions continued in a softer tone as we neared the airport where my plane -- filled with ever pricier jet fuel squeezing the airline's profit -- would hopefully get me back to Britain without a sermon from the pilot.

But they didn't get any easier to answer.