...

Oil price forecasts revised up by $10/bbl

Oil&Gas Materials 26 January 2018 11:06 (UTC +04:00)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.26

By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:

The US JP Morgan Bank has increased its 2018 price forecasts by $10 per barrel to $70 per barrel for Brent and by $10.7 per barrel for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) to $65.63 per barrel.

“We expect Brent to touch close to $78 per barrel towards end of 1Q18 or early 2Q18 but that trend should reverse towards the end of the year with Brent averaging $60 per barrel in 4Q18,” said the bank’s report obtained by Trend.

The forecasts were raised as oil markets look set to rapidly approach five year average inventory levels.

JP Morgan analysts believe that shale leads the supply response to higher prices as the bank increases its assessment of US shale supply growth to be consistent with the higher price forecasts.

“At $60 per barrel of WTI, we expect US shale oil production (from Bakken, Permian, Eagle Ford and Niobrara) to average 5.2 million barrels per day in 2018 (an increase of 740,000 barrels per day year-on-year average),” said the report.

Moreover, JP Morgan Economic Research has raised its 2018 growth forecasts from 2.9 percent year-on-year in June 2017 to 3.5 percent year-on-year currently.

Consequently, the bank now expects oil products demand to grow by 1.76 million barrels per day year-on-year in 2018.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn

Tags:
Latest

Latest