Brent crude futures traded near $117 per barrel on Wednesday, consolidating recent gains after a three-day rally, as investors weighed concerns over a potential demand slowdown against signs of ongoing supply tightness. Industry data showed US crude inventories declined 3.799 million barrels last week, much worse than market expectations for a 110,000 barrel drop. The UK oil benchmark also jumped 2.5% in the previous session following reports that major producers Saudi Arabia and UAE are at, or very close to, near-term capacity limits, while political unrest in Libya and Ecuador threatened to tighten supply further. This comes ahead of an OPEC+ meeting this week, where the group is expected to stick to its policy of modest output increases. Meanwhile, G7 leaders agreed to explore a price cap on Russian oil aimed at depleting Moscow’s war chest. However, government data showed Russia is actually getting higher prices for its oil due to strong demand in Asia.
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.