Mubasher: Oil prices are expected to rise above $80 per barrel (pb) over the coming months, Goldman Sachs said in a report released Monday .

The US-based bank’s forecast came, despite growing fears over higher crude supply from members and non-members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), reports of rising oil inventories, and recent escalation in trade disputes.

Although oil prices were mixed on Monday following a week of losses, analysts at Goldman Sachs stated that anticipation that OPEC would announce an oil production increase could actually boost crude prices, offsetting the supply shortfalls from Iran and Venezuela.

Moreover, the bank’s updated global supply-demand balance indicated further falls in inventories, reaffirming its previous forecast of $82.50 pb during the summer.

"Our updated fundamental oil balance shows […] that the oil market remains in deficit with resilient demand growth and rising disruptions requiring higher core OPEC and Russia production to avoid a stock-out by year-end," the investment bank noted, predicting that both OPEC and non-OPEC producers would boost production by 1 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of 2018 and 500,000 bpd in the first half of 2019.

By 2:18 pm GMT, Nymex crude futures edged up 0.03% to $65.08 pb, while Brent crude rose 1.28% to $74.38 pb.