Oil Prices Seen Headed for $60 – And Beyond

With a nod from OPEC, oil prices have climbed nearly 6% in the last three days and are widely expected to top $60 a barrel.

Not that the group wanted to see them rise. In fact, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed Wednesday to a largely symbolic rise in its official output limits to signal its desire to see prices cool.

But OPEC ministers’ repeated acknowledgment this week that the group has effectively lost control over a market more concerned about supplies of petroleum products than crude oil is encouraging traders to push prices even higher.

“The insistence of many OPEC members that they are unable to prevent prices rising because of such refinery capacity shortages is likely to be taken as a further bullish signal by the market,” Barclays Capital analysts wrote in a note Wednesday. “We expect $60 for crude to be breached in pretty short order.”
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