Brent crude is expected to reach $44.1 per barrel (/b) towards the end of the third quarter (Q3) of 2020 and $48.7/b in Q4, a report said, noting that Brent is forecasted to average $46.2/b for 2020 as a whole.

For 2021, the average forecast for Brent is maintained at $56.6, said the latest Oil Market Weekly report from Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), a Japanese bank holding and financial services company

“Our oil price conviction is emphatically shifting more bullish, reflecting three developments,” MUFG said in the report.

“First, tightening fundamentals with investors increasingly embracing the oil markets move into deficit since early June.

“Second, ongoing US dollar ($) depreciation (a weak $ makes $ priced commodities cheaper to purchase on a relative basis) – with the negative oil-$ correlation currently at a near eight year high.

“Third, the official selling price (OSP) for Saudi crude remains below historical averages, in a bid to sell at competitively favourable levels to prop-up demand,” it added. – TradeArabia News Service