Brent crude futures held steady near $116 per barrel on Thursday but were headed for the first monthly decline since November, as fears of an economic slowdown driven by central banks’ aggressive action to combat surging inflation weighed on oil markets this month. Analysts also flagged signs of weakening US gasoline demand, with near-record prices likely suppressing consumption. The four-week moving average of gasoline supplied fell below 9 million barrels a day, or about 600,000 barrels less than typical seasonal levels, EIA data showed. Meanwhile, the UK oil benchmark is still up about 50% this year as the global economic recovery from the pandemic slump coincided with disrupted Russian supply due to the war in Ukraine. Underinvestment, capacity limits and political unrest also mired major producers and added to supply concerns. OPEC+ began two days of meetings on Wednesday with sources saying there was little prospect of pumping more oil.
Historically, Brent crude oil reached an all time high of 147.50 in July of 2008. Brent crude oil - data, forecasts, historical chart - was last updated on June of 2022.
Brent crude oil is expected to trade at 117.01 USD/BBL by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate it to trade at 129.51 in 12 months time.