According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), the Brent crude oil price is likely to average US$71/bbl in 2018 and then decrease to US$68/bbl in 2019. The current high price levels are driven by the decline of global oil inventories over the January 2017 - April 2018 period. However, the global oil inventories will possibly rise slightly starting from the second half of 2018 onwards, which will in turn cause a slight decline in oil prices. This expected inventory growth comes from the fact that the global oil supply growth will outpace the predicted oil demand growth in 2019.
The EIA also predicts that the OPEC crude oil production will reach an average 32 mb/d in 2018, which would be 0.4 mb/d less than in 2017. Nevertheless, it will remain at a stable level in 2019 and stay close to 32.1 mb/d, reflecting revised forecasts of crude oil production in Iran and Venezuela.