The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has become more pessimistic about the future of oil prices this year amid plentiful supplies and softening demand from China, the group’s members said this week. Persian Gulf OPEC members, the leaders behind group’s new strategy of letting market forces determine prices while pumping more to maintain customers, now believe prices won’t go much higher than they are now, if at all this year. Brent crude, the international benchmark, was trading between $47 and $48 a barrel in London on Thursday afternoon. One Persian Gulf country official told The Wall Street Journal that members see Brent trading between $40 and $50 a barrel through the end of 2015. Gulf OPEC members had expected prices to bounce back firmly to the $70 to $80 range at the end this year. Brent oil prices crashed to $42 a barrel in August, the lowest […]