Analysts predict that oil prices will stabilize in the second half of 2015 and rise in 2016 and 2017 as consumers increase demand due to lower prices. Oil prices now are half what they were this time last year as a result of a fall of 60% in oil prices between June 2014 and January 2015. As a result, motorists and businesses have increased their fuel consumption. This increasing demand is expected to dampen or eliminate any effect of Iranian oil hitting global markets if a nuclear deal is reached, which would increase supply by approximately 1 million barrels a day. “Global oil demand will surprise upwards, driven by the United States, China and emerging Asia,” said analyst Daniela Corsini.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/30/us-oil-prices-idUSKBN0MQ10L20150330
7 Comments
“Increasing demand should help absorb any extra oil coming onto the market from Iran, if it can agree a nuclear deal with the West that would bring an end to sanctions. And some analysts see demand outstripping supply.”
Interesting how they mention we could see this massive surplus of late on the supply side now turn into a demand surplus. Is a little equilibrium too much to ask for??
I read an article about a month ago saying that oil prices are expected to drop even further by June/July, close to $30/25 per barrel. Clearly, oil prices are very difficult to estimate….
I have also seen similar predictions that suggest that the price of oil could potentially fall to a level around $30 per barrel. However, I have also read that oil producers cannot sell oil at this level without taking on severe losses in costs. It will be interesting to see whether or not prices rise or fall in the next few years and how large oil producers will respond
A number of large oil producing countries have stated they will increase production, especially in the Middle East. If they increase production like they claim to I would not be surprised to see oil prices fall further. The drop in oil prices over the past year, though has been staggering.
Oil prices are almost to volatile to correctly predict. Also I think consumer demand for oil would change quiet drastically if the price of oil skyrocketed.
Especially considering the current level of unrest and unpredictability in the middle east, I agree that it’s pretty hard to speculate on future oil prices right now.
How many analysts predicted today’s low prices? Of course, their mistakes could be from listening to macroeconomists’s growth projections. The “new” macro people used models without financial sectors and uniformly predicted a short, mild recession. And high inflation by now. Then there’s the independent slowing of China’s growth, something obviously in the works (the population will soon be falling) but ignored by many economists who didn’t think past the “miracle” headlines.
But we have relatively little information on the marginal vs fixed costs of US production, and the distribution of well productivity and longevity, and other basic data.
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