Goldman Sachs on oil prices and the OPEC meeting:
Intraday oil price volatility has picked up over the past week and ahead of today's OPEC advisory meeting in Algiers. Statements by participants suggest a deal to curb production today or at the next meeting in November is more likely than at any point over the past two years. We remain sceptical of its impact, for two reasons: (1) independent of today's outcome, our production forecast continues to reflect a seasonal Saudi production decline into year-end and no growth elsewhere, the equivalent of a deal; and (2)even with this OPEC help, our updated oil supply-demand forecast now points to a renewed build in inventories in 4Q 2016 vs. a forecast for a draw only last month.
This weaker oil outlook into year-end led us yesterday to lower our year-end WTI oil price forecast to $43/bbl, from $51/bbl previously, and still below the forward curve even after yesterday's sell-off . While a potential OPEC deal today could support prices in the short term, we find that the potential for fewer disruptions and the relatively high speculative net long positioning instead leave risks to our forecast squarely skewed to the downside. Given the uncertainty on forward supply-demand balances, we reiterate our view that oil prices need to reflect near-term fundamentals - which are weaker - with a lower emphasis on the more uncertain longer-term fundamentals.
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