Baku, Azerbaijan, May 11
By Aygun Badalova - Trend:
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts Brent oil prices to average $41 per barrel in 2016 and $51 per barrel in 2017, which is $6 per barrel and $10 per barrel higher than the forecast in last month's projections.
WTI oil prices are forecasted to average slightly less than Brent in 2016 ($40.32) and to be the same as Brent in 2017, according to the EIA's Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO).
The highest prices for Brent in 2016 and 2017 will be observed in the last quarters - at $44.02 per barrel and $56.94 per barrel respectively, according to the EIA's forecasts. The prices for WTI during the mentioned period will be the same as Brent.
EIA forecasts US oil production to average 8.6 million barrels per day in 2016 and 8.2 million barrels per day in 2017.
The country's production averaged 9.4 million barrels per day in 2015, according to the EIA's estimates.
EIA estimates that crude oil production for the month of April 2016 averaged 9 million barrels per day, which is 0.1 million barrels per day below the March 2016 level, and 0.7 million barrels per day below the 9.7 million barrels per day level reached in April 2015.