Oil prices will fall to $30 a barrel in the next three months, Goldman Sachs said yesterday, as it lowered its 2009 forecast for oil prices to $45 a barrel, down from a previous prediction of $80 a barrel.

The forecast is an awkward U-turn for a bank that, until recently, had been one of the big bulls of the oil market and only a few months ago warned about the danger of a "super-spike" to $200 a barrel.