Global Markets: “We See Prices Trading Into the $80-90 Per Barrel Range” – Analysts

The price of Brent Crude oil will average between $80 and $90 per barrel in the 2020s, according to oil and gas analysts at BMI Research.

“Prices have strengthened faster than we had anticipated and we have upgraded our forecast to reflect this higher base,” the analysts said in a brief report sent to Rigzone.

BMI expects Brent to average $73 per barrel in 2018, which is considerably higher than the Bloomberg Consensus of $65 per barrel. For 2019, BMI forecasts Brent to average $77 per barrel. The company’s previous forecasts for 2018 and 2019 stood at $67 per barrel and $75 per barrel, respectively.

“Our fundamental outlook is bullish,” BMI analysts said.

“Continuing demand growth and underinvestment in new supply threaten a sizeable deficit in the market, with the balance of risk to the forecast lying firmly to the upside,” they added.

Earlier this month, analysts at BMI said the Middle East would remain the “main driver of geopolitical risk premia” in Brent and confirmed that they expected prices to become “increasingly sensitive” to events in the region as the market tightens in the coming years.

At the time of writing, the price of Brent Crude stood at just under $78 per barrel. In June this year, prices stood at just under $45 per barrel.