BNP Paribas cuts 2015 oil price forecasts
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - BNP Paribas has cut price forecasts for Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude by more than $10 per barrel on the back of the recent sharp decline as a supply glut persists, the banks' analysts said late Thursday.
"Despite significant downward revisions in our last crude oil price update, price declines since have superseded our expectations," BNP Paribas analysts Gareth Lewis-Davies and Harry Tchilinguirian wrote in a note.
Brent is expected to average at $60 per barrel this year, down $17 from BNP's previous forecast in November. The 2015 WTI average has been revised down to $55 from $70.
Both contracts are set to post a seventh weekly decline at the end of Friday after hitting the lowest since 2009 earlier this week. WTI rose above $49 a barrel on Friday while Brent settled down at $51.15 a barrel on Thursday.
Supply issues will dominate the oil sector with investors closely watching the growth in U.S. shale oil production and OPEC's resolve to let the market determine the price, the analysts said.
"Normalisation of Federal Reserve policy and expectations of a firmer U.S. dollar on the back of higher interest rates will generate headwinds for oil," they added.
(Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Richard Pullin)
