
The price of a barrel of the North Sea benchmark dropped on Monday by 5.5% to 47.36 dollars, its lowest level since early 2009. US crude oil was also at its lowest level since that time, down by 5% to 45.90 a barrel.

As we ring in the New Year, let's take stock of where we are at with the oil markets. 2014 proved to be a momentous one for the oil markets, having seen prices cut in half in just six months.

The oil price drop that has dominated the headlines in recent weeks has been framed almost exclusively in terms of oil market economics, with most media outlets blaming Saudi Arabia, through its OPEC Trojan horse, for driving down the price, thus causing serious damage to the world's major oil exporters – most notably Russia.

Market analysts describes two possible international scenarios. Whichever one prevails will be decisive. But it is not happenning soon.

Argentine stocks closed down 6.85% Wednesday, weighted down by falling oil prices for a second day of heavy losses. As oil prices sank to new five-year lows, the Merval stock index in Buenos Aires shed more than 600 points to 8,279.04, after losing 7.22% Tuesday.

The slump in global oil prices will reduce Argentina's energy import bill by several billion dollars, a development that could ease pressure on the Central Bank’s strained foreign-currency reserves, according to Economy minister Axel Kicillof.

The Russian ruble suffered on Tuesday its biggest one-day decline since 1998 as oil prices continued to fall on Monday, escalating fears about the Russian economy. The currency slid almost 9% against the dollar before rallying after suspected central bank intervention.

Brent and US crude oil plunged as much as 6.50 dollars a barrel on Thursday, the steepest one-day falls since 2011 following on OPEC's decision against cutting output despite a huge oversupply in world markets.

The Falkland Islands Government said on Thursday it took notice of the announcement by Premier Oil of their revised proposal for commercial oil production in the Falkland Islands, which “it is considered represents a realistic solution to progress development in the current international oil price environment”.

With oil prices low and showing no sign of an immediate rebound, the industry is beginning to pull back on spending. Oil prices have dropped around 30% since summer highs, raising fears among producers across the globe.