According to the OPEC, which is a union of some of the biggest oil exporters in the world, assumes that the current oil prices are still supported by winter weather conditions and accumulated oil inventories, Market Leader reports. According to the oil cartel, oil prices may well dorm further down to $30-35/b by mid 2015. these predictions are backed by low global demand coupled with expanding oversupply at the expense of stably high oil production sown by the OPEC.
At the same time, a representative of the oil exporters from the Persian Gulf says that low oil prices cause lower investments in the companies producing shale oil. Apparently, such low global oil prices make shale oil production a loser.
Over the long run, oil prices are expected to stabilize around $40-45/b, the OPEC believes. However, the global oil inventories are high and keep on growing while the demand is declining amid the never ending economic slowdown seen worldwide. Another representative of the OPEC assumes that oil prices amy well stay below most expectations in the near future, which is not going to surprise anyone once this is actually the case.
Still, Some U.S. and Canadian oil producers have already cut down on their oil production, which may slow down the current negative tendency seen in the global market of crude oil.
It seems like we are going to see even further declines in oil prices in the coming months since the OPEC nations are definitely not going to change their oil production volume until June 2015. The thing is that such major changes are decided during OPEC summits. The nearest one is scheduled for June 5th, 2015.
It should be noted that despite the negative predictions made by some OPEC representatives for the near-term and mid-term future of oil prices, the Secretary General of the OPEc assumes that oil prices may well skyrocket up to as much as $200/b in 3-4 years o ultra low oil prices since the current negative tendency is promoting a flight of investment capital from the oil industry. This is likely to result in lower oil production and oil supply shortage in several years.
