EIA lowers forecast for 2016 Brent price to USD67 per barrel

US' Energy Information Administration (EIA) released (09-Jun-2015) its monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), with the following highlights:

• North Sea Brent crude oil prices averaged USD64/barrel (b) in May-2015, a USD5/b increase from Apr-2015 and the highest monthly average of 2015. Despite estimated global inventories increasing by more than 2 million barrels per day (b/d) for the third consecutive month, several factors contributed to higher prices in May-2015, including continued signals of higher global oil demand growth, expectations for declining US tight oil production in the coming months, and the growing risk of unplanned supply outages in the Middle East and North Africa;
• EIA forecasts Brent crude oil prices will average USD61/b in 2015 and USD67/b in 2016. The 2016 price forecast is USD3/b lower than in last month's STEO. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) prices in both 2015 and 2016 are expected to average USD5/b less than the Brent price. The current values of futures and options contracts for Dec-2015 delivery suggest the market expects (at the 95% confidence interval) WTI prices in that month to range from USD40/b to USD92/b. [more - original PR]