A 6 month plan to shake up the industry? "Opec's...

A 6 month plan to shake up the industry?
"Opec's Secretary-General Abdullah al-Badri told Reuters on Sunday that he hoped to see a recovery in the price of oil by the second half of 2015.

"We hope the price would rebound by the end of the second half of 2015," he said. "We can't see the market now, we have to wait until the end of the second half of 2015 to see how the market [will] react to these low prices.""
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""Tumbling prices have already had a profound impact around the globe, including in Britain where three times as many UK oil and gas firms have declared insolvency this year compared with 2013.

A report published on Monday by Moore Stephens, a UK accountancy firm, said that 18 UK oil and gas businesses became insolvent this year compared with just six in 2013, The Guardian reports.""





Oil price: North Sea oil fields 'close to collapse'
19 December

The tumbling oil price has brought about a "huge crisis" for the UK's North Sea oil industry, an expert has warned.

With oil prices now below $60 a barrel, it is "almost impossible to make money", Robin Allan, the chairman of the independent explorers’ association Brindex, told the BBC.

"It's a huge crisis. This has happened before, and the industry adapts, but the adaptation is one of slashing people, slashing projects and reducing costs," he said.

The announcement came after a volatile day of trading. Brent crude, the global benchmark, ended the day down 1 per cent at about $60 per barrel after having risen by as much as 3 per cent in intraday trading.

In recent weeks, oil prices have slipped to their lowest levels in five-and-a-half years following weakening demand and concerns of a global oil glut.

Up to £55bn worth of North Sea oil projects scheduled for 2015 could be cancelled due to the falling prices, the Daily Telegraph reports.

Concerns over the profitability of North Sea oil have increased since Opec voted not to cut production in an attempt to arrest sliding prices when they met in Vienna last month.



Read more: http://www.theweek.co.uk/business/o...unds-sparking-hopes-of-recovery#ixzz3N2bpyrjH