The U.S. Energy Information Administration lifted its forecasts for this year’s U.S. and global benchmark oil prices, according to a monthly report released Tuesday. The EIA forecast this year’s West Texas Intermediate crude prices at an average $61.85 a barrel, up 5% from the May forecast. Brent crude is expected to average $65.19 this year, up 4.7% from the previous forecasts. The EIA, however, lowered its oil forecasts for 2022 by 0.4% to $56.74 for WTI and to $60.49 for Brent. U.S. oil production is expected to average 11.08 million barrels per day this year, up 0.5% from May’s forecast, the EIA said. Domestic gasoline consumption is likely to average 9.1 million barrels a day this summer, which runs from April to September – 1.3 million barrels per day more than last summer, but down 400,000 barrels per day from the summer of 2019. The EIA also expects U.S. regular gasoline retail prices to average $2.92 a gallon this summer, up from $2.07 last summer. In Tuesday dealings, July WTI crude tacked on 44 cents, or 0.6%, to $69.67 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. August Brent crude rose 31 cents, or 0.4%, to $71.80 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe.
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