Highlights North Sea Brent crude oil prices averaged $58/barrel (bbl) in February, an increase of $10/bbl from the January average, and the first monthly average price increase since June 2014. The price increase reflects news of falling U.S. crude oil rig counts and announced reductions in capital expenditures by major oil companies, along with lower-than-expected Iraqi crude oil exports. EIA forecasts that Brent crude oil prices will average $59/bbl in 2015, $2/bbl higher than projected in last month’s STEO, and $75/bbl in 2016. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) prices in 2015 and 2016 are expected to average $7/bbl and $5/bbl, respectively, below Brent. The Brent-WTI spread for 2015 is more than twice the projection in last month’s STEO, reflecting continuing large builds in U.S. crude oil inventories, including at the Cushing, Oklahoma storage hub. The current values of futures and options contracts continue to suggest very high uncertainty in the […]