Goldman Revisits $40 Low Crude Prices Guesstimate

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said it didn’t expect oil demand to recover so quickly and its forecast for crude at $40 a barrel may be too low.

While the bank projects that oil will still reverse its recent advance, the failure of global inventories to increase amid weather-related disruptions and stronger-than-expected demand means there’s a risk prices will miss its target for the next two quarters, according to a report dated March 8. Morgan Stanley also said the oil market was “surprisingly healthy.”

Global benchmark crude prices rose in February for the first time in eight months, rebounding from an almost 50 percent loss in 2014 as U.S. production surged to a 30-year high. Sandstorms disrupted Iraqi exports while cold weather in the U.S. and a drought in Brazil bolstered consumption, according to Goldman Sachs.

“The lack of a meaningful build in the past few months leaves risk to our forecast for oil prices remaining at $40 a barrel for two quarters skewed to the upside,” Goldman analysts including Damien Courvalin in New York wrote in the report. “Weather has played a great part in keeping crude off the market.”

Bloomberg

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