Oil’s collapse to $27 a barrel last week spurred concern that, on top of the existing oversupply, the market is facing a demand crisis. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. thinks that’s wrong. Over the past six weeks, long-term oil futures — for deliveries in five years’ time — have fallen even harder than prices for immediate supplies. That’s a sign to Jeff Currie, Goldman Sachs’ head of commodities research, that the latest rout wasn’t driven by fading oil consumption. When demand is weak, that gap — or timespread — would widen rather than narrow, he says. “Recent price declines are not demand driven, but rather driven by structural supply forces,” he said. “Time-spreads in Brent and oil products have strengthened, not weakened, and weakening time-spreads are characteristic of demand-driven price declines.” So if a demand shock wasn’t the culprit, then what did push prompt crude to its lowest in more […]