1st LD Writethru: Oil prices drop amid ample supplies

Oil prices lost Tuesday amid speculation that U.S. stockpiles of last week would increase.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) is scheduled to release a report unveiling the U.S. crude inventories in the week ended Jan. 9. U.S. stockpiles probably rose to 384.1 million barrels, according to a Bloomberg survey.

EIA forecast that Brent oil prices will average 58 dollars in 2015 and 75 dollars in 2016, with annual average U.S. crude prices expected to be 3 to 4 dollars below Brent.

U.S. crude oil production is expected to average 9.3 million barrels per day in 2015, according to EIA's energy outlook report published Tuesday. Total U.S. crude oil production averaged an estimated 9.2 million barrels per day in last December.

Oil prices plummeted on Monday as investment banks including Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price forecasts.

Excess storage and tanker capacity suggest the market can run a surplus longer than it has in the past, so oil at around 40 dollars will be needed to slow U.S. producers, Goldman analysts Jeffrey Currie said in a report Monday.

Societe Generale Monday reduced its average U.S. crude price for this year to 51 dollars, and predicted that Brent will average 55 dollars in 2015.

Light, sweet crude for February delivery lost 18 cents to settle at 45.89 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for February delivery decreased 84 cents to close at 46.59 dollars a barrel. Endite