Banks stay gloomy on oil despite Saudi attacks - WSJ poll

Oil prices are unlikely to move much higher in the fourth quarter as rising US crude oil exports and concerns about faltering demand will likely trump fears of supply shortage triggered by an attack on Saudi oil facilities earlier this month, a poll of 13 major investment banks by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) showed on Friday.

According to the poll, banks expect Brent prices to average $64.31 a barrel in the final three months pf2019 - largely unchanged from the previous month's poll estimate. Meanwhile, WTI prices are forecasted to average $58.24 per barrel - slightly up from the last month's estimate of $57.82 per barrel. 

Drone strikes on Saudi's Aramco knocked out 5% of global supply earlier this month. Oil prices gapped almost 20% higher on Sept. 16, on fears of prolonged production outage at one of the largest oil producers of the world. 

Since then, Saudi officials have repeatedly assured markets that full capacity is back online and not a single shipment of crude oil will be missed.

As of writing, Brent and WTI are seen changing hands at $61.20 and $51.05 per barrel, respecively.