LONDON (Reuters) Jan. 12, 2015 – Oil prices renewed their declines on Monday, dropping below $49 a barrel as Goldman Sachs slashed its short-term forecasts and Gulf producers showed no signs of cutting production.
Both Brent and U.S. crude are around their lowest since April 2009 and have fallen for seven straight weeks on a growing supply glut.
The February Brent contract LCOc1 was down $1.29 at $48.82 a barrel. U.S. Crude oil for February CLc1 was down $1.12 at $47.24 per barrel.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs (GS.N) cut their three-month forecasts for Brent to $42 a barrel from $80 a barrel and for the U.S. West Texas Intermediate contract to $41 a barrel from $70 a barrel. The bank cut its 2015 Brent forecast to $50.40 a barrel from $83.75 and U.S. crude to $47.15 a barrel from $53.75.
Saudi Arabia, the world`s biggest oil exporter, has said it won`t support prices by cutting production and ignored calls from smaller OPEC members, including Venezuela, to react to falling oil prices at the cartel`s November meeting.
On Saturday Iran vowed to help Venezuela stem the oil price fall.
