By Adedapo Adesanya
Fitch Solutions Country Risk & Industry Research has put its latest Brent crude price forecasts for 2022 at $100 per barrel.
In a new report, Fitch Solutions outlined that it sees the Brent oil price, which Nigeria prices its benchmark crude against, averaging $100 per barrel this year, $90 per barrel in 2023, $85 per barrel in 2024, and $88 per barrel in both 2025 and 2026.
“This month, we are holding our annual average Brent front-month forecast at $100 per barrel for 2022 and $90 per barrel in 2023, despite the EU embargo on Russia oil and petroleum products agreed at the end of May 2022,” Fitch Solutions stated in the report.
“Our fundamental views remain intact, with our expectation that a ban on Russia oil imports was likely and as factored into our forecast, with the net loss of demand from continuing lockdown measures in China and slower global economic growth both weighing on oil consumption and muting the impact of lost Russian barrels,” the company added in the report.
“The most significant bullish factor currently impacting oil prices is the ongoing fallout from the Russia-Ukraine conflict,” Fitch Solutions continued.
The Bloomberg Consensus, which Fitch Solutions is a contributor to and which was also included in the report, sees Brent prices averaging $99.8 per barrel in 2022, $90 per barrel in 2023, $85 per barrel in 2024, $83 per barrel in 2025, and $81.5 per barrel in 2026.
The US Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest short-term energy outlook, which was released this week, projects that the Brent spot price will average $107.37 per barrel this year and $97.24 per barrel in 2023.
The EIA’s previous STEO, which was released in May, forecasted that the Brent spot price would average $103.35 per barrel in 2022 and $97.24 per barrel in 2023.
Dipo Olowookere