The EIA now forecasts the Brent crude price to average $61 a barrel in 2015 and $67 a barrel in 2016. The WTI price will average $5 a barrel below the Brent price.
The agency also forecasts monthly average gasoline prices to decline from May levels and to average $2.43 per gallon of regular gasoline for the second half of 2015. For the full year, the EIA expects an average price of $2.44 a gallon, a penny a gallon higher than last month’s estimate. For 2016, EIA estimates gasoline to cost $2.55 a gallon, down eight cents compared with last month’s estimate.
U.S. crude oil production averaged an estimated 9.6 million barrels a day in May. Production is expected to decline into early next year before increasing again. The EIA estimates average U.S. production in 2015 at 9.4 million barrels a day, dipping to 9.3 million barrels a day in 2016.
In the drilling productivity report released on Monday, the EIA projects June oil production from new wells in seven major shale plays to total 404,000 barrels a day, rising to 419,000 barrels a day in July. Total production, however, is expected to drop from 5.58 million barrels a day in June to 5.49 million barrels in July.
The EIA also noted that the week ending May 29 saw the highest natural gas storage injection (132 billion cubic feet) in more than a decade. The agency is expecting natural gas in storage to reach 3.912 trillion cubic feet by the end of October, 115 billion cubic feet above the five-year average for that time of year.
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