Friday, March 25, 2011
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas
by Jack Z. SmithIf you believe oil prices are going to soar in coming years, you're very much in sync with the thinking of the brain trust at Barclays Capital, a prominent international investment banking firm based in London.
Barclays, in its Oil Market Update released Thursday, forecasts that a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil, the benchmark U.S. grade, will sell for an average price of $185 in 2020. That's $38 higher than the current all-time record high reached in the summer of 2008, when oil topped $147 a barrel.
Meanwhile, Barclays is dramatically revising its 2011 oil price forecast upward in light of tensions in the Middle East, curtailed production in Libya, rising global oil demand and a shrinkage in spare production capacity.
Barclays is now forecasting an average price of $106 a barrel for WTI this year, a $15 jump from its prior estimate of $91. And it is predicting that even pricier North Sea Brent crude will average $112 rather than the $91 it previously forecast for that grade also.
WTI crude for May delivery settled at $105.60 Thursday, down 15 cents, in futures contracts for May delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange. But the price went as high as $106.69 in intraday trading.
Brent crude gained 17 cents to settle at $115.72 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange.
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