The price of crude oil fell to less than $47 a barrel yesterday, to a three and a half year low the Financial Times reports.
The latest drop means the price of oil has plummeted $100 a barrel in less than five months and makes the July record high of $147 a barrel seem like a distant memory.
While initially this may result in good news for motorists at the petrol pumps, it has raised fresh concerns that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) cartel could agree to cut oil production in order to prop up prices.
Much could be determined by OPEC’s meeting on December 17 in Oran, Algeria, when the cartel is expected to cut output by 1m-1.5m barrels a day.
