HOUSTON, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Brent price will average lower in 2019 than that in 2018, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Tuesday.
In its January Short-Term Energy Outlook released on Tuesday, EIA forecast that Brent price will average 61 U.S. dollars per barrel in 2019 and 65 dollars per barrel in 2020, both lower than the average Brent price in 2018, which was 71 dollars per barrel.
Meanwhile, EIA expected West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil price will average 8 dollars per barrel lower than Brent price in the first quarter of 2019 before the discount gradually falls to 4 dollars per barrel in the fourth quarter of 2019 and throughout 2020.
EIA also forecast U.S. regular gasoline retail price will average 2.47 dollars per gallon (about 3.8 litters) in 2019 and 2.62 dollars per gallon in 2020, which would be a decrease from an average of 2.73 dollars per gallon in 2018.
When it comes to crude oil production, EIA estimated that U.S. crude oil production averaged 10.9 million barrels per day in 2018, up 1.6 million barrels per day.
EIA forecast U.S. crude oil production to average 12.1 million barrels per day in 2019 and 12.9 million barrels per day in 2020, with most of the growth coming from the Permian region of Texas and New Mexico.
