Goldman Cuts Crude Forecast 

Goldman Sachs, an American multinational investment bank and financial services company, lowered its oil price forecast by $10 to $100 per barrel for the fourth quarter of 2022, citing rising Covid concerns in China and lack of clarity over the Group of Seven nations’ plan to cap Russian oil prices.
“The market is right to be anxious about forward fundamentals, due to significant Covid cases in China and a lack of clarity on the implementation of the G7 price cap,” Goldman economists, including Jeffrey Currie, said in a note, adding that more lockdowns in China would be equivalent to the deep production cuts imposed by OPEC+ of 2 million barrels a day, CNBC reported.
China recorded three Covid deaths over the weekend, the country’s first deaths from the virus since May this year. Its capital Beijing tightened Covid measures in the last three days, as the local case count climbed to several hundred per day.
The economists added that the possibility of more lockdowns in the world’s top importer of oil will dent demand from it even further.
“China’s Covid cases are at Apr-22 highs, yet the new policy reaction function is unknown ... We lower our expectations for China demand by 1.2 [million barrels per day] for the quarter [to 14 mbpd]), anticipating further lockdowns from here,” the note stated, adding that China’s current crude demand falls short of Goldman’s expectations for October to November by 800,000 barrels a day.