Short-Term Energy Outlook

Prices

Brent crude oil spot prices averaged $59 per barrel (b) in August, down $5/b from July and $13/b lower than the average from August of last year. EIA forecasts Brent spot prices will average $60/b in the fourth quarter of 2019 and $62/b in 2020. EIA forecasts that West Texas Intermediate (WTI) prices will average $5.50/b less than Brent prices in 2020.

The Henry Hub natural gas spot price averaged $2.22 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) in August, down 15 cents/MMBtu from July. This summer, prices have declined amid rising natural gas production, despite high levels of both natural gas exports and consumption in the electricity generation sector. Based on recent price movements and EIA’s assessment that natural gas production will be sufficient to meet expected demand and export levels at a lower price than previously forecasted, EIA lowered its Henry Hub spot price forecast for 2020 to an average of $2.55/MMBtu, 20 cents/MMBtu lower than the August forecast.

Prices
	2017	2018	2019projected	2020projected
^aWest Texas Intermediate. ^bAverage regular pump price. ^cOn-highway retail. ^dU.S. Residential average. ^eElectric power generation fuel cost.
WTI Crude Oil^a (dollars per barrel)	50.79	65.06	56.31	56.50
Brent Crude Oil (dollars per barrel)	54.15	71.19	63.39	62.00
Gasoline^b (dollars testper gallon)	2.42	2.73	2.56	2.63
Diesel^c (dollars per gallon)	2.65	3.18	3.05	3.16
Heating Oil^d (dollars per gallon)	2.51	3.01	2.95	3.00
Natural Gas^d (dollars per thousand cubic feet)	10.86	10.49	10.57	10.55
Electricity^d (cents per kilowatthour)	12.89	12.89	13.04	13.13
Coal^e (dollars per million Btu)	2.06	2.06	2.09	2.11

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Related Tables
Table SF01. U.S. Motor Gasoline Summer Outlook	PDF
Table SF02. Average Summer Residential Electricity Usage, Prices and Expenditures	PDF
Table 1. U.S. Energy Markets Summary	PDF
Table 2. Energy Prices	PDF
Table 4c. U.S. Regional Motor Gasoline Prices and Inventories	PDF
Table 5b. U.S. Regional Natural Gas Prices	PDF
Table 7c. U.S. Regional Retail Electricity Prices	PDF

Related Figures
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil price	XLSX	PNG
U.S. gasoline and crude oil prices	XLSX	PNG
U.S. diesel fuel and crude oil prices	XLSX	PNG
Henry Hub natural gas price	XLSX	PNG
U.S. natural gas prices	XLSX	PNG
U.S. residential electricity price	XLSX	PNG
U.S. census regions and census divisions	XLSX	PNG

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