Oil prices are unlikely to rise consistently above $80 per barrel before the end of the decade, the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicted in the World Energy Outlook published on Tuesday. Slower growth in demand coupled with the transformational impact of shale on production costs and increased supplies from Iran and Iraq will ensure the market rebalances slowly and at lower prices. The new edition of the World Energy Outlook (WEO 2015) analyses a range of supply and demand scenarios which see real oil prices rise gradually to between $55 and $83 by 2020. The problem is there is no evidence that the IEA or anyone else can accurately forecast oil prices five years in future. In the 2010 WEO, the agency predicted real prices would be around $90 in 2015, and […]