| The U.S. Energy Information Administration increased its 2014 and 2015 price forecasts for West Texas Intermediate and Brent crudes because of the upsurge of violence in Iraq. WTI will average $100.98 a barrel this year versus the June projection of $98.67, the EIA, the Energy Department’s statistical unit, said today in its monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook. The U.S. benchmark grade will average $95.17 in 2015, up from the previous month’s estimate of $90.92.
The EIA boosted the forecast for Brent to $109.55 for this year from $107.82. Next year’s forecast was raised to $104.92 from $101.92. “Price forecasts were raised primarily because the problems in Iraq caused us to scale back our production projections,” Tancred Lidderdale, an economist with the EIA in Washington who helped write the report..........................................Full Article: Source
|