Veteran oil bull departs Barclays Paul Horsnell, the analyst who embodied the era of high energy, metals and food commodities prices, has left Barclays, where he worked for the past decade. Mr Horsnell, a veteran oil analyst who previously worked at JPMorgan and taught at Oxford university, became one of the most well-known pundits of the commodities supercycle with a series of über-bullish forecasts in the early 2000s - an era of record breaking price rises, driven by the industrialisation and urbanisation of China and other emerging countries. Only Jeffrey Currie, head of commodities research at Goldman Sachs, and Arjun Murtihas, oil equities analyst also at Goldman, have overshadowed him on the bullish side. Ed Morse, the veteran oil watcher at Citigroup, has also been a popular analyst among investors, but for the opposite reason: his bearish views. Mr Horsnell, author of the indispensable Oil Markets and Prices: The Brent Market and the Formation of World Oil Prices, leapt to fame a decade ago. At a time when the consensus view for long-term oil prices was firmly anchored at $18 a barrel, he told clients that oil prices would average $43 a barrel by 2010. In hindsight, that forecast looks timid, but it caused a stir in the oil industry and trading community, with many doubting it was possible. Since then, he has often led the pack of bullish commodities views among Wall Street and City of London banks. Ironically, his departure from Barclays has coincided with a bearish note from the bank's analysts on Wednesday. They are "revising down" their oil price forecast "to reflect what is, for now at least, a more placid geopolitical environment than we previously expected." The bank says it forecast Brent on average this year at $112 a barrel, down from a previous forecast of $125. Mr Horsnell's departure comes at a time when Barclays is trying to rebuild its commodities business following the exit of top bankers and traders. Roger Jones, the former head of commodities, left the bank in early 2012 to join Mercuria, the Geneva-based commodities trading house. Others followed, including much of the metals team, and also top traders in power and gas. Barclays has ranked for most of the past decade as the third-largest investment bank in commodities, behind the leaders Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. After a sharp fall in revenues in 2011, however, hit by a large loss in trading copper and aluminium, JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank climbed into the rankings after a rapid expansion. Barclays recovered somewhat in 2012. Barclays declined to comment and Mr Horsnell could not be reached.