Oil Prices Drop Again After Brief Revival on OPEC Demand Forecast for 2015

MOSCOW, January 15 (Sputnik) – As of 15:48 GMT, February futures for Brent crude oil decreased by 1.02 percent reaching $48.2 per barrel. February futures for WTI dropped by 2.06 percent to $47.5. Earlier on Thursday Brent reached $50.62 per barrel, surpassing $50 for the first time in a week, while WTI reached $51.07 per barrel.

"World oil demand growth for 2014 was revised up by 20 tb/d to average 0.95 mb/d, bringing total oil demand to 91.15mb/d…. For 2015, growth is expected to be around 1.15 mb/d, higher by 30 tb/d from the previous month"s report, reaching 92.30 mb/d," OPEC said in a report released on its official website. OPEC said the upward revision was caused by the better-then-expected demand data in the OECD, Americas and Other Asia regions.

Global oil prices started going down in June, 2014 amid market oversupply. In November 2014, OPEC decided to not change oil output levels contributing to a further price decrease. In total, Brent crude oil more than halved its price, which went down from $115 per barrel in June to $46 this week. According to the most recent forecasts by US Goldman Sachs, over the next six months the price of Brent oil could fall to $43 per barrel with WTI crude oil reaching $39 per barrel.