Oil slumps 5 percent after Goldman slashes forecast

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil slumped 5 percent to near six-year lows on Monday, accelerating its months-long rout after Goldman Sachs slashed its short-term price forecasts and Gulf producers showed no signs of curbing output.

The February Brent contract fell $2.62 to $47.48 a barrel by 10:56 p.m. EST (1356 GMT). U.S. crude oil for February was down $2.20 at $46.15 per barrel.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs cut their three-month forecasts for Brent to $42 a barrel from $80 and for the U.S. West Texas Intermediate contract to $41 from $70 a barrel. The bank cut its 2015 Brent forecast to $50.40 a barrel from $83.75 and U.S. crude to $47.15 a barrel from $73.75.

Despite declining investments in U.S. shale oil, the main driver in the current supply glut, production will take longer to come down, Goldman said in a report.

"To keep all capital sidelined and curtail investment in shale until the market has rebalanced, we believe prices need to stay lower for longer," the analysts said.

Phil Flynn of Price Futures Group said economic turmoil the world over is also depressing the market, which was primed for deeper losses even prior to the report.

"I think the market would have fallen anyway," Flynn said. "The Goldman report acknowledges what a lot of people are really expecting."

As OPEC's November decision not to curtail production in the face of falling prices piles pressure on some group members, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro met Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Salman in Riyadh on Sunday as part of a diplomatic tour in the Gulf to discuss falling oil prices.

However, Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, has said it will not support prices by cutting production and ignored calls from smaller OPEC members, including Venezuela, to react to falling oil prices at the cartel's November meeting.

On Saturday, Iran vowed to help Venezuela stem the oil price fall.

(Additional reporting by Jacob Pederson and Ron Bousso in London; Editing by Marguerita Choy)