(Corrects headline to show oil down 2 percent, not 5 percent)
* Goldman cuts 2009 oil price forecast
* Fears for automakers hits Wall Street
* OPEC president calls for "severe" output cuts
(Updates prices, recasts, adds detail throughout, changes
dateline from previous LONDON)
By Edward McAllister
NEW YORK, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Oil fell over 2 percent a
barrel on Friday after the collapse of a $14 billion rescue
plan for U.S. automakers caused heavy losses across global
financial markets.
U.S. bank Goldman Sachs predicted oil could drop as low as
$30, off highs over $147 a barrel in July, as the credit crunch
puts a strangle-hold on the world economy. []
U.S. crude oil for January delivery <CLc1> was down $1.03
at $46.95 a barrel by 12.50 p.m. EST (1750 GMT) after earlier
falling below $44 a barrel. London Brent crude was down 55
cents at $46.84.
"The auto bailout plan dying in the Senate is weighing on
all markets," said Tom Bentz, analyst at BNP Paribas Commodity
Futures Inc. "Yesterday's late pullback is looking like another
failure on the upside."
U.S. stocks cut earlier losses on the possibility that the
White House or U.S. Treasury might come through with an aid
package for the automakers. []
The plight of the big U.S. auto firms -- General Motors,
Chrysler and Ford -- illustrates the severity of the global
economic downturn that has hit demand for oil.
U.S. Department of Transportation figures released on
Friday showed that U.S. motorists drove 9 billion miles fewer
in October than a year earlier, down 3.5 percent.
[]
Sales at U.S. retailers fell for a fifth straight month in
November -- the longest decline in at least 16 years -- as
consumers felt the squash of the credit squeeze.
"The collapse in world oil demand in the fourth quarter of
2008 as the global credit crunch intensified now threatens to
push oil prices below $40 a barrel in the near term," Goldman
Sachs said in a research note.
"The impact of the global economic recession has swung the
oil market from pricing demand destruction in 2008 to pricing
supply destruction in 2009," it added.
OPEC
Goldman Sachs, which earlier this year had predicted $200
per barrel oil, virtually halved its 2009 price forecast for
U.S. crude to $45 and said the price could fall to $30 in the
short term, hitting a trough in the first quarter.
The bank said a cut of an extra 2 million barrels per day
was needed from OPEC, which meets next on Dec. 17 in Algeria.
French bank BNP Paribas cut its 2009 price forecast to $53
a barrel from $75 previously. []
OPEC's President Chakib Khelil has called for more "severe"
supply cuts at next week's meeting. []
Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev said the country was
ready to work with OPEC on possible oil output cuts.
[]
Japan's Nippon Oil said it expected OPEC to agree to cut
1.5 million to 2.0 million bpd next week.
"Chances for a 2.5-million-barrel-per-day cut are possible,
but that would put increased criticism on OPEC amidst the
economic slowdown, so I think the likely cuts are up to 2 mln
bpd," Kazuyoshi Takayama, Nippon Oil's general manager, told
reporters in Tokyo.
(Additional reporting by Jane Merriman in London, Jennifer Tan
in Singapore and Osamu Tsukimori in Tokyo; Editing by Christian
Wiessner)
