DHAKA: Global oil prices extended their slide on Monday as Goldman Sachs lowered its short-term price outlook, while refineries in Ohio and Pennsylvania were hit by fires over the weekend, curtailing demand for crude in the US.

Both Brent and US crude are at their lowest since April 2009 and have ended down for the past seven straight weeks.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs slashed their three-month price forecast for Brent to US$42 a barrel from US$80.

They set their forecast for US crude at US$41 a barrel, down from US$70, adding it would need to stay near US$40 for most of the first half of 2015 before it would hold up shale oil investments.

‘To keep all capital sidelined and curtail investment in shale until the market has rebalanced, we believe prices need to stay lower for longer,’ the analysts said in a report, according to The Straits Times.

BDST: 1315 HRS, JAN 12, 2015