Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.8
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Brent oil prices are expected to stand at $56 per barrel as of the first quarter of 2018, according to the forecasts of the US JP Morgan Bank.
This is while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil price is forecast to drop from the current $61.7 per barrel to $50.5 per barrel as of late March 2018, said the bank.
For the rest of the year, Brent prices will continuously rise to $58 per barrel in the second quarter of 2018, $62 per barrel in the third quarter and $65 per barrel as of the fourth quarter of 2018, JP Morgan analysts believe.
As for WTI prices, they will be lower than Brent prices throughout the whole 2018, standing at $52.5 per barrel in the second quarter of 2018, $57 per barrel in the third quarter and $60.5 per barrel in the fourth quarter of 2018, according to the bank’s forecasts.
JP Morgan analysts state that most of the energy complex has rallied 1-3 percent this year on the back of an ultra-cold winter, improving global growth and supply outages in the North Sea and Libya.
“Markets were already well supported thanks to the positive outcome of the OPEC-non-OPEC meeting in November 2017 to broaden participation to Libya and Nigeria. Tighter-than-anticipated fundamentals and increasing geopolitical tensions (Iran) have led to money managers increasing their net longs for both Brent and WTI,” said the report.
This, plus weakness in trade weighted US dollar, has further supported oil prices and commodities in general, according to JP Morgan.
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