Baku, Azerbaijan, July 10
By Aygun Badalova - Trend:
Analysts of the British economic research and consulting company Capital Economics have lowered their oil prices forecasts for 2015 and 2016.
Analysts' report obtained by Trend said that their end-2015 forecasts for Brent and WTI have been lowered from $60 to $55 per barrel and from $55 to $50 respectively.
Company's analysts have also moved their end-2016 forecasts down to $60, from $65, for Brent and from $62 to $55 for WTI, as they expect increases in US output and extra supplies from Iran to continue to weigh on prices.
"The combination of a Greek "no" vote, signs of rising US oil production, positive signals of a nuclear deal between Iran and the West as well as slowing Chinese demand for imported oil means that we are nudging down our oil price forecasts for this year and next," analysts said in the report.
U.S. oil futures posted their biggest weekly decline since March amid concerns about a continued oversupply of crude oil and potential weaker demand from the eurozone and China, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Light, sweet crude for August delivery settled down 4 cents, or 0.1 percent, at $52.74 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract lost 7.4 percent this week, the biggest one-week drop since March.
Brent, the global benchmark, rose 12 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $58.73 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. Prices lost 2.6 percent for the week.