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Page added on March 10, 2010

Oil trading steady, analysts say expect higher prices

Oil prices ended Tuesday’s trading session down, but still well above the $80 mark as a stronger US dollar and higher stock markets kept oil firm.

What analysts are currently predicting about oil prices

Despite Tuesday’s decline, many analysts expect crude oil prices to continue moving higher in the months ahead as gasoline demand begins to improve.

“Our price outlook for the second half of this year remains positive with the crude oil market tightening as global demand recovers,” analysts at BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research wrote in a report.

“We currently see the crude oil market in a small deficit this year, with demand picking up particularly towards the end of the year,” the report said.

David Greely, of Goldman Sachs, anticipates global inventories will keep falling, changing price spreads and lifting crude into the $85 to $95 a barrel range in the second half of 2010.

“The increased growth in 2010 oil consumption supports a firming of crude oil prices at above $80 per barrel this summer and accommodates a further drawdown of commercial oil inventories,” the EIA said.