Macquarie, Standard Chartered Released Crude Oil Price Forecasts

SEATTLE (Oil Monster): Leading investment banking and analysis firms Macquarie and Standard Chartered announced price forecasts for crude oil.

According to Macquarie analysts, Brent crude oil prices are projected to remain rangebound between $80 and $90 per barrel through the second quarter of the current year. They maintained a bearish view on oil, mainly due to non-OPEC supply growth, declining OPEC+ space capacity and weaker than anticipated demand.

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The crude prices have been trading in a narrow range of +/- $3 over the past two weeks. The prices which faced heavy sell-off during early-May this year, looks to have bottomed out, they said.

Meantime, the analysts at Standard Chartered Bank observed that oil market witnessed sideways movement so far this month. The latest Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) positioning data indicates that there is a sharp movement by money-managers towards the short side in the commodity. The net selling across the four main Brent and WTI futures contracts stood at 111.6 million barrels, they said.

Standard Chartered Bank expects that future ICE Brent price will average $98 per barrel in the third quarter and $106 per barrel in the fourth quarter of 2024.