Oil prices tumbled to their weakest levels in nearly four years Thursday as investors fixated on mounting signs of recession in the global economy
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude for January delivery settled at 43.67 dollars a barrel, down 3.12 dollars from Wednesday's close. It was the lowest crude price since January 2005.
In London, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in January fell 3.16 dollars to settle at 42.28 dollars on the InterContinental Exchange, also at the lowest since January 2005.
In intraday trade the New York contract fell as low as 43.51 dollars and the London contract dropped to 42.04.
Oil prices have lost more than two-thirds of their value since striking record highs above 147 dollars on July 11.
Wall Street bank Merrill Lynch forecast crude oil could fall to 30 dollars a barrel in New York if China sinks into the global recession and OPEC fails to cut back production to meet slowing demand.
"A temporary drop to this (30-dollar) level would be technically possible if the global recession extends to China and OPEC fails to cut output sufficiently," Merrill Lynch said in a 2009 energy market outlook report published Thursday.
"With demand vanishing across all key oil-consuming regions, a strong rebound in prices ... is unlikely" in the first half of 2009, Merrill analysts said, forecasting an average 2009 price of 50 dollars a barrel.
Author:
Ksenia Kochneva
