Brent Crude prices are set to average $50.67 a barrel in 2021, slightly down from the price at which they traded early on the last trading day of 2020, the monthly Reuters poll of analysts and economists showed on Thursday.

The key downside risk for oil prices in 2021 will be the mutating strains of the coronavirus that threaten economic and oil demand recovery with lockdowns and travel restrictions, according to the 39 experts polled by Reuters.

In the December survey, the analysts raised their average expectations for Brent Crude prices for 2021 to $50.67 per barrel, up from the forecast of $49.35 a barrel in the November Reuters poll, but below the price at which Brent Crude traded at 7:35 a.m. ET on Thursday, $51.13.

The analysts also raised their forecast for the average price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), expecting the U.S. benchmark to average $47.45 a barrel in 2021, compared to $46.40 in the November poll. Early on Thursday, WTI Crude prices were down by 1 percent at $47.91.

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Source: Oil Price