Crude prices rise while forecasts raised

The crude oil price roller coaster was up again on Friday after having been down in the middle of the week. West Texas Intermediate crude oil for September delivery was up $2.08 to $65.35 per barrel in electronic trading on Friday as contracts through June of 2008 traded above the $60 level.

Meanwhile, October contract Brent crude on the International Petroleum Exchange gained $1.96 to 64.36 per barrel Friday, but did not gain back the full $2.70 it lost over the past two days, remaining about 5 percent lower than its record high reached on Monday.

As the price began to rise again, more analysts followed Goldman Sachs in raising their target price on crude oil, citing tight supplies. Just this week, Ecuador said that Petroecuador, its national oil company, was cutting production by 201,000 barrels a day, half the nations output, due to demonstrations near its Amazon oil fields.

Among those raising its estimates of future oil prices was JP Morgan, which said that a long-term price range of $30 to $40 per barrel was a reasonable but conservative estimate.

Meanwhile, Merrill Lynch increased its prediction of long-term prices for WTI to $42 per barrel from $35 per barrel, and upped its forecast for Brent crude from $33 per barrel to $41 per barrel.