EIA raises Brent crude price outlook for 2018, 2019

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Tuesday raised its forecast on Brent crude prices by nearly 2 percent from its last month’s outlook.

The agency expects Brent spot prices to average $63.36 per barrel (bbl) this year, and $62.68/bbl in 2019, EIA said in its latest short-term energy outlook.

This compares to EIA’s March estimates of $62.13/bbl in 2018 and 61.51/bbl in 2019.

The EIA said it expects West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil prices to average $4/bbl lower than Brent prices in both 2018 and 2019.

According to the agency’s estimates, the US crude oil production averaged 10.4 million barrels per day (bpd) in March, up 260,000 bpd from the February level.

“EIA projects that US crude oil production will average 10.7 million bpd in 2018, which would mark the highest annual average US crude oil production level, surpassing the previous record of 9.6 million bpd set in 1970,” the report said.

“EIA forecasts that 2019 crude oil production will again increase, averaging 11.4 million bpd,” it added.