Originally Posted by Columbia

Goldman ups its oil forecast...

Oil rises to near $99 as Goldman boosts forecasts - Yahoo! Finance

Oil prices inched up closer to $99 a barrel Tuesday after Goldman Sachs raised its crude forecasts on concern the shutdown of Libyan output will drain spare OPEC supplies.

By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark oil for July delivery was up 87 cents to $98.57 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent crude for July delivery was up $1.15 to $111.25 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Goldman said it expects Brent will rise to $140 by the end of next year, higher than the investment bank's previous forecast of $120. A civil conflict in Libya has shut down almost all the country's 1.6 million barrels a day of oil production, and Goldman expects that loss to global supply will eventually push prices higher.