Price of oil


The price of oil, or the oil price, generally refers to the spot price of a barrel of benchmark crude oil—a reference price for buyers and sellers of crude oil such as West Texas Intermediate, Brent Crude, Dubai Crude, OPEC Reference Basket, Tapis crude, Bonny Light, Urals oil, Isthmus and Western Canadian Select. There is a differential in the price of a barrel of oil based on its grade—determined by factors such as its specific gravity or API gravity and its sulfur content—and its location—for example, its proximity to tidewater and refineries. Heavier, sour crude oils lacking in tidewater access—such as Western Canadian Select—are less expensive than lighter, sweeter oil—such as WTI.
According to a January 2020 EIA report, the average price of Brent crude oil in 2019 was $64 per barrel compared to $71 per barrel in 2018. The average price of WTI crude oil was $57 per barrel in 2019 compared to $64 in 2018.
The price of oil decreased substantially in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 Russia–Saudi Arabia oil price war. On 20 April, WTI Crude futures contracts dropped below $0 for the first time in history, and the following day Brent Crude fell below $20 per barrel.

Overview

According to Our World in Data, in the nineteenth and early twentieth century the global crude oil prices were "relatively consistent." In the 1970s, there was a "significant increase" in the price of oil globally, partially in response to the 1973 and 1979 oil crises. In 1980, globally averaged prices "spiked" to US$107.27. In the early 1980s, concurrent with the OPEC embargo, oil prices experienced a "rapid decline." Following the financial crisis, there was a spike in 2008, which was followed by a crash. The record high oil price was reached in 2011. The global average price of oil dropped to US$43.73 per barrel in 2016. By April 2020 the price dropped by 80 per cent, down to a low of about $5, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 Russia–Saudi Arabia oil price war.

The causes of oil price fluctuations

There are two views dominating the oil market discourse. There are those who strongly believe that the market has undergone structural changes and that low oil prices are here to stay for a prolonged period. At the other end of the spectrum, there are those who think that this is yet another cycle and oil prices will recover sooner rather than later.
A 2016 survey of the academic literature finds that "most major oil price fluctuations dating back to 1973 are largely explained by shifts in the demand for crude oil". As the global economy expands, so does demand for crude oil. The authors note that the price of oil has also increased at times due to greater "demand for stocks of crude oil... to guard against future shortages in the oil market. Historically, inventory demand has been high in times of geopolitical tension in the Middle East, low spare capacity in oil production, and strong expected global economic growth." In particular, political events can have a strong influence on the oil price. Historical examples include OPEC's 1973 embargo in reaction to the Yom Kippur War and the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Financial analysts and academics have had very few tools to study such political events compared to what is available on economic aspects of oil price formation.
The PRIX index was developed in attempt to fill this gap with a metric on political developments and corresponding export trends from world's 20 largest oil exporters.
The supply of oil is dependent on geological discovery, the legal and tax framework for oil extraction, the cost of extraction, the availability and cost of technology for extraction, and the political situation in oil-producing countries. Both domestic political instability in oil producing countries and conflicts with other countries can destabilise the oil price. In 2008 the New York Times reported, for example, in the 1940s the price of oil was about $17 rising to just over $20 during the Korean War. During the Vietnam War the price of oil slowly declined to under $20. During the Arab oil embargo of 1973—the first oil shock—the price of oil rapidly rose to double in price. During the 1979 Iranian Revolution the price of oil rose. During the second oil shock the price of oil peaked in April 1980 at $103.76. During the 1980s there was a period of "conservation and insulation efforts" and the price of oil dropped slowly to. It again reached a peak of c. $65 during the 1990 Persian Gulf crisis and war. Following that, there was a period of global recessions and the price of oil hit a low of before it peaked at a high of $45 on 11 September 2001, the day of the September 11 attacks, only to drop again to a low of $26 on 8 May 2003. The price rose to $80 with the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. By 3 March 2008 the price of oil reached $103.95 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Although the oil price is largely determined by the balance between supply and demand—as with all commodities—some commentators including Business Week, the Financial Times and the Washington Post, argued that the rise in oil prices prior to the financial crisis of 2007–2008 was due to speculation in futures markets.
In 2014-2015 Saudi Arabia caused a slump in the price of crude oil price which benefited the world economy. By flooding the market with oil in a failed attempted to slow down US shale oil production, Saudi Arabia caused a "positive supply shock" which resulted in a US$2 trillion "tax cut for consumers".
An August 2016 Forbes article said that oil was the "world's primary fuel" and that demand for oil was rising globally, particularly in India and China.

Benchmark pricing

In North America this generally refers to the spot price of West Texas Intermediate, also known as Texas Light Sweet, a type of crude oil used as a benchmark in oil pricing and the underlying commodity of New York Mercantile Exchange's oil futures contracts. WTI is a light crude oil, lighter than Brent Crude oil. It contains about 0.24% sulfur, rating it a sweet crude, sweeter than Brent. Its properties and production site make it ideal for being refined in the United States, mostly in the Midwest and Gulf Coast regions. WTI has an API gravity of around 39.6 per barrel of either WTI/light crude as traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange for delivery at Cushing, Oklahoma. Cushing, Oklahoma, a major oil supply hub connecting oil suppliers to the Gulf Coast, has become the most significant trading hub for crude oil in North America.
In Europe and some other parts of the world, the price of the oil benchmark is Brent Crude as traded on the Intercontinental Exchange for delivery at Sullom Voe. Brent oil is produced in coastal waters of UK and Norway. The total consumption of crude oil in UK and Norway is more than the oil production in these countries. So Brent crude market is very opaque with very low oil trade physically. However Dated Brent price is used widely to fix the prices of crude oil, LPG, LNG, natural gas, etc. trade globally including Middle East crude oils.
Other important benchmarks include Dubai, Tapis, and the OPEC basket. The Energy Information Administration uses the imported refiner acquisition cost, the weighted average cost of all oil imported into the US, as its "world oil price".
In Robert Mabro's 2006 book on challenges and opportunities in oil in the 21st century, after the collapse of the OPEC-administered pricing system in 1985, and a short lived experiment with netback pricing, oil-exporting countries adopted a market-linked pricing mechanism. First adopted by PEMEX in 1986, market-linked pricing received wide acceptance and by 1988 became and still is the main method for pricing crude oil in international trade. The current reference, or pricing markers, are Brent, WTI, and Dubai/Oman.

Early history of oil price

The price of oil remained "relatively consistent" from 1861 until the 1970s.

20th century

Formation of OPEC

In 1960 the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries was founded in Baghdad, Iraq by its first five members—Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela—with Qatar and Libya joining immediately, followed by United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Nigeria, Ecuador and Gabon after a decade. The goal of these countries was to increase their influence in the world oil market, then dominated by a cartel known as the "Seven Sisters", five of which were headquartered in the United States. These companies had been controlling posted prices since the so-called 1927 Red Line Agreement and 1928 Achnacarry Agreement, and had achieved a high level of price stability until 1972. Angola joined OPEC in 2007 and Equatorial Guinea in 2017.

1970s oil crises

In 1979, during the Iranian Revolution as the global oil supply was "constrained", the price of oil "more than doubled".

1980s oil glut

According to The Economist, as non-OPEC countries, such as the United States and Britain, increased their oil production, there was a global "oil glut", resulting in a decrease in the price of oil in the early 1980s.

21st century

From 1999 til mid 2008, the price of oil rose significantly. It was explained by the rising oil demand in countries like China and India.

Financial crisis and speculation

In the middle of the financial crisis of 2007–2008, the price of oil underwent a significant decrease after the record peak of US$147.27 it reached on 11 July 2008. On 23 December 2008, WTI crude oil spot price fell to US$30.28 a barrel, the lowest since the financial crisis of 2007–2008 began. The price sharply rebounded after the crisis and rose to US$82 a barrel in 2009. In July 2008 oil reached a record peak of US$147.27 but by February 2009 it sank beneath $40 a barrel. On 31 January 2011, the Brent price hit $100 a barrel for the first time since October 2008, on concerns about the political unrest in Egypt. For about three and half years the price largely remained in the $90–$120 range. In the middle of 2014, price started declining due to a significant increase in oil production in USA, and declining demand in the emerging countries. The oil glut—caused by multiple factors—spurred a sharp downward spiral in the price of oil that continued through February 2016. By 3 February 2016 oil was below $30— a drop of "almost 75 percent since mid-2014 as competing producers pumped 1–2 million barrels of crude daily exceeding demand, just as China's economy hit lowest growth in a generation." Some analysts speculate that it may continue to drop further, perhaps as low as $18
In June 2008 Business Week reported that the surge in oil prices prior to 2008 had led some commentators to argue that at least some of the rise was due to speculation in the futures markets. However, although speculation can greatly raise the oil price in the short run, in the long run fundamental market conditions will determine the oil price. Storing oil is expensive, and all speculators must ultimately, and generally within a few months, sell the oil they purchase.
According to a U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission 29 May 2008 report the "Multiple Energy Market Initiatives" was launched in partnership with the United Kingdom Financial Services Authority and ICE Futures Europe in order to expand surveillance and information sharing of various futures contracts. Part 1 is "Expanded International Surveillance Information for Crude Oil Trading." This announcement has received wide coverage in the financial press, with speculation about oil futures price manipulation.
The interim report by the Interagency Task Force, released in July, found that speculation had not caused significant changes in oil prices and that fundamental supply and demand factors provide the best explanation for the crude oil price increases. The report found that the primary reason for the price increases was that the world economy had expanded at its fastest pace in decades, resulting in substantial increases in the demand for oil, while the oil production grew sluggishly, compounded by production shortfalls in oil-exporting countries.
The report stated that as a result of the imbalance and low price elasticity, very large price increases occurred as the market attempted to balance scarce supply against growing demand, particularly in the last three years. The report forecast that this imbalance would persist in the future, leading to continued upward pressure on oil prices, and that large or rapid movements in oil prices are likely to occur even in the absence of activity by speculators. The task force continues to analyze commodity markets and intends to issue further findings later in the year.

2010s oil glut

Economists have observed that the 2010s oil glut started with a considerable time-lag, more than six years after the beginning of the Great Recession: "the price of oil stabilized at a relatively high level unlike all previous recessionary cycles since 1980. But nothing guarantee such price levels in perpetuity".
In March 2014, Steve Briese, a commodity analyst, had forecast a decline of world price to $75 from $100, based on 30 years of extra supply. In early December 2014, Briese projected a low of $35 a barrel. On 8 January 2015 commodity hedge fund manager Andrew J. Hall suggested that $40-a-barrel is close to "an absolute price floor," adding that a significant amount of U.S. and Canadian production can't cover the cash costs of operating at that price.
During 2014–2015, OPEC members consistently exceeded their production ceiling, and China experienced a marked slowdown in economic growth. At the same time, U.S. oil production nearly doubled from 2008 levels, due to substantial improvements in shale "fracking" technology in response to record oil prices. A combination of factors led a plunge in U.S. oil import requirements and a record high volume of worldwide oil inventories in storage, and a collapse in oil prices that continues into 2016.
It has also been argued that the collapse in oil prices in 2015 should be very beneficial for developed western economies, who are generally oil importers and aren't over exposed to declining demand from China. In the Asia-Pacific region, exports and economic growth were at significant risk across economies reliant on commodity exports as an engine of growth. The most vulnerable economies were those with a high dependence on fuel and mineral exports to China, such as: Korea DPR, Mongolia and Turkmenistan—where primary commodity exports account for 59–99% of total exports and more than 50% of total exports are destined to China. The decline in China's demand for commodities also adversely affected the growth of exports and GDP of large commodity-exporting economies such as Australia and the Russian Federation. On the other hand, lower commodity prices led to an improvement in the trade balance—through lower the cost of raw materials and fuels—across commodity importing economies, particularly Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal and other remote island nations which are highly dependent on fuel and agricultural imports.
In early 2015, the US oil price fell below $50 per barrel dragging Brent oil to just below $50 as well.
In mid-January 2015, Goldman Sachs predicted the U.S. oil benchmark to average $40.50 a barrel and Brent to average $42 a barrel in the second quarter. For the year, Goldman saw Brent prices averaging $50.40 and for the U.S. benchmark, $47.15 a barrel in 2015, down from $73.75.
The North Sea oil and gas industry was financially stressed by the reduced oil prices, and called for government support in May 2016.
According to a report released on 15 February 2016 by Deloitte LLP—the audit and consulting firm—with global crude oil at near ten-year low prices, 35% of listed E&P oil and gas companies are at a high risk of bankruptcy worldwide. Indeed, bankruptcies "in the oil and gas industry could surpass levels seen in the Great Recession."
In late 2015, an Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries member Venezuela's Oil Minister Eulogio del Pino and a Goldman Sachs analyst Michele Della Vigna suggested that oil may go as low as $20-per-barrel mark, although with a 15% probability, and that it would only be temporary. Lord Browne, the former chief executive of BP, did not rule out the possibility when asked if oil could hit $20 a barrel. He said, "In the long run, $20 is probably wrong, but that's as far as I’d go."
According to Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, in 2014–2015, Saudi Arabia flooded the market with inexpensive crude oil in a failed attempted to slow down US shale oil production, and caused a "positive supply shock" which saved consumers about US$2 trillion and "benefited the world economy". Because of oversupply and lack of agreements between oil-producing countries members of the OPEC and also because of lack of coordinated efforts between OPEC and Non-OPEC countries the price of oil fell rapidly in 2015 and continued to slide in 2016 causing the cost of WTI crude to fall to a 10-year low of $26.55 on 20 January. The average price of oil in January 2016 was well below $35. Oil did not recover until April 2016, when oil went above the $45 mark.
By 20 January 2016, the OPEC Reference Basket was down to US$22.48/bbl—less than one-fourth of its high from June 2014, less than one-sixth of its record from July 2008, and back below the April 2003 starting point of its historic run-up. According to the United Nations, growth prospects of the oil exporters are predicted to remain subdued past 2018.
In late September and early October 2018, the price of oil rose to a four-year high of over $80 for the benchmark Brent crude in response to concerns about constraints on global supply. The production capacity in Venezuela had decreased. United States sanctions against Iran, OPEC's third-biggest oil producer, were set to be restored and tightened in November. In June OPEC reduced production. According to MarketWatch, in October the price of oil began to drop as the Trump administration made exceptions to their sanctions against Iran for China, India, Greece, Italy, Taiwan, Japan, Turkey and South Korea allowing them to import Iranian oil.
The 1 November 2018 U.S. Energy Information Administration report announced that the US had become the "leading crude oil producer in the world" when it hit a production level of 11.3 million barrels a day in August 2018, mainly because of its shale oil production. US exports of petroleum—crude oil and products—exceeded imports in September and October 2019, "for the first time on record, based on monthly values since 1973."
By the end of November the price of Brent had dropped rapidly to $58.71, more than 30% from its peak, the biggest 30-day drop since 2008. Increased oil production in Russia, some OPEC countries and the United States, which deepened global over supply, were factors in the crash. President Trump said that the lower price of oil was like a "big Tax Cut for America and the World".
An article in The Economist said that rising oil prices have a negative impact on oil-importing countries in terms of international trade. Import prices rise in relation to their exports. The importing country's current account deficits widen because "their exports pay for fewer imports".
As of 10 January 2019, the price of the OPEC Reference Basket of 14 crudes was $59.48 a barrel.
According to 7 January 2020 EIA report, the average price of Brent crude oil in 2019 was $64 per barrel compared to $71 per barrel in 2018. The average price of WTI crude oil was $57 per barrel in 2019 compared to $64 in 2018.

Covid-19 pandemic

Oil prices dropped significantly in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, causing a large stock market fall.
The IHS Market reported that the "Covid-19 demand shock" represented a bigger contraction than that experienced during the Great Recession during the late 2000s and early 2010s.
As demand for oil dropped to 4.5m million barrels a day below forecasts, tensions rose between OPEC members.
At a 6 March OPEC meeting in Vienna, major oil producers were unable to agree on reducing oil production in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
The spot price of WTI benchmark crude oil on the NYM on 6 March 2020 dropped to US$42.10 per barrel.
On 8 March, the oil price war was launched. Later on the same day, oil prices had decreased by 30%, representing the largest one-time drop since the 1991 Gulf War. Oil traded at about $30 a barrel.
Very few energy companies can produce oil when the price of oil is this low. Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Iraq had the lowest production costs in 2016, while the United Kingdom, Brazil, Nigeria, Venezuela, and Canada had the highest.
As the global crude oil demand has been stagnating, both Saudi Arabia and Russia, fearing their market share would be garnered by the US in case they reduce their output to stabilize crude oil price, decided to leave the oil price to be decided by the market based on demand and availability as they, being low cost producers, are confident of protecting or enhancing their market share.
On 9 April, Saudi Arabia and Russia agreed to oil production cuts. Reuters reported that "If Saudi Arabia failed to rein in output, US senators called on the White House to impose sanctions on Riyadh, pull out US troops from the kingdom and impose import tariffs on Saudi oil." On 20 April, due to excessive demand for storage of the large surplus in production, the price for future delivery of US crude in May had become negative, the first time to happen since the New York Mercantile Exchange began trading in 1983.

Market listings

Oil is marketed among other products in commodity markets. By 2008 widely traded oil futures, and related natural gas futures, included with most of these oil futures having delivery dates every month:
The oil-storage trade, also referred to as contango, a market strategy in which large, often vertically-integrated oil companies purchase oil for immediate delivery and storage—when the price of oil is low— and hold it in storage until the price of oil increases. Investors bet on the future of oil prices through a financial instrument, oil futures in which they agree on a contract basis, to buy or sell oil at a set date in the future. Crude oil is stored in salt mines, tanks and oil tankers.
Investors can choose to take profits or losses prior to the oil-delivery date arrives. Or they can leave the contract in place and physical oil is "delivered on the set date" to an "officially designated delivery point", in the United States, that is usually Cushing, Oklahoma. When delivery dates approach, they close out existing contracts and sell new ones for future delivery of the same oil. The oil never moves out of storage. If the forward market is in "contango"—the forward price is higher than the current spot price—the strategy is very successful.
Scandinavian Tank Storage AB and its founder Lars Jacobsson introduced the concept on the market in early 1990. But it was in 2007 through 2009 the oil storage trade expanded, with many participants—including Wall Street giants, such as Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Citicorp—turning sizeable profits simply by sitting on tanks of oil. By May 2007 Cushing's inventory fell by nearly 35% as the oil-storage trade heated up.
By the end of October 2009 one in twelve of the largest oil tankers was being used more for temporary storage of oil, rather than transportation.
From June 2014 to January 2015, as the price of oil dropped 60 percent and the supply of oil remained high, the world's largest traders in crude oil purchased at least 25 million barrels to store in supertankers to make a profit in the future when prices rise. Trafigura, Vitol, Gunvor, Koch, Shell and other major energy companies began to book oil storage supertankers for up to 12 months. By 13 January 2015 At least 11 Very Large Crude Carriers and Ultra Large Crude Carriers " have been reported as booked with storage options, rising from around five vessels at the end of last week. Each VLCC can hold 2 million barrels."
In 2015 as global capacity for oil storage was out-paced by global oil production, and an oil glut occurred. Crude oil storage space became a tradable commodity with CME Group— which owns NYMEX— offering oil-storage futures contracts in March 2015. Traders and producers can buy and sell the right to store certain types of oil.
By 5 March 2015, as oil production outpaces oil demand by 1.5 million barrels a day, storage capacity globally is dwindling. In the United States alone, according to data from the Energy Information Administration, U.S. crude-oil supplies are at almost 70% of the U. S. storage capacity, the highest to capacity ratio since 1935.
In 2020, rail and road tankers and decommissioned oil pipe lines are also being used to store crude oil for contango trade. For the WTI crude to be delivered in May 2020, the price had fallen to -$40 per bbl due to lack of storage/expensive storage. LNG carriers and LNG tanks can also be used for long duration crude oil storage purpose since LNG can not be stored long term due to evaporation. Frac tanks are also used to store crude oil deviating from their normal use.

Comparative cost of production

In their May 2019 comparison of the "cost of supply curve update" in which the Norway-based Rystad Energy—an "independent energy research and consultancy"—ranked the "worlds total recoverable liquid resources by their breakeven price", they listed the "Middle East onshore market" as the "cheapest source of new oil volumes globally" with the "North American tight oil"—which includes onshore shale oil in the United States—in second place. The breakeven price for North American shale oil was US$68 a barrel in 2015, making it one of the most expensive to produce. By 2019, the "average Brent breakeven price for tight oil was about US$46 per barrel. The breakeven price of oil from Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries was US$42, in comparison.
Rystad reported that the average breakeven price for oil from the oil sands was US$83 in 2019, making it the most expensive to produce, compared to all other "significant oil producing regions" in the world. The International Energy Agency made similar comparisons.
In 2016, the Wall Street Journal reported that the United Kingdom, Brazil, Nigeria, Venezuela, and Canada had the costliest production. Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Iraq had the cheapest.
CountryGross
taxes		Capital
spending		Production
costs		Admin
transport		Total
UK$0$22.67$17.36$4.30$44.33
Brazil$6.66$16.09$9.45$2.80$34.99
Nigeria$4.11$13.10$8.81$2.97$28.99
Venezuela$10.48$6.66$7.94$2.54$27.62
Canada$2.48$9.69$11.56$2.92$26.64
U.S. Shale$6.42$7.56$5.85$3.52$23.35
Norway$0.19$13.76$4.24$3.12$21.31
U.S. non-shale$5.03$7.70$5.15$3.11$20.99
Indonesia$1.55$7.65$6.87$3.63$19.71
Russia$8.44$5.10$2.98$2.69$19.21
Iraq$0.91$5.03$2.16$2.47$10.57
Iran$0$4.48$1.94$2.67$9.08
Saudi Arabia$0$3.50$3.00$2.49$8.98

Future projections

Peak oil is the period when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production enters terminal decline. It relates to a long-term decline in the available supply of petroleum. This, combined with increasing demand, will significantly increase the worldwide prices of petroleum derived products. Most significant will be the availability and price of liquid fuel for transportation.
The US Department of Energy in the Hirsch report indicates that "The problems associated with world oil production peaking will not be temporary, and past "energy crisis" experience will provide relatively little guidance."
Global annual crude oil production increased from in 2008 to per day in 2018 with a marginal annual growth rate of 1%. During the year 2020 crude oil consumption is expected to decrease from earlier year due to Coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

Impact of rising oil price

The rising oil prices could negatively impact the world economy. Since supplies of petroleum and natural gas are essential to modern agriculture techniques, a fall in global oil supplies could cause spiking food prices in the coming decades. One reason for the increase in food prices in 2007–08 may be the increase in oil prices at the same time.

Impact of declining oil price

A major rise or decline in oil price can have both economic and political impacts. The decline on oil price during 1985–1986 is considered to have contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union. Low oil prices could alleviate some of the negative effects associated with the resource curse, such as authoritarian rule and gender inequality. Lower oil prices could however also lead to domestic turmoil and diversionary war. The reduction in food prices that follows lower oil prices could have positive impacts on violence globally.
Research shows that declining oil prices make oil-rich states less bellicose. Low oil prices could also make oil-rich states engage more in international cooperation, as they become more dependent on foreign investments. The influence of the United States reportedly increases as oil prices decline, at least judging by the fact that "both oil importers and exporters vote more often with the United States in the United Nations General Assembly" during oil slumps.
The macroeconomics impact on lower oil prices is lower inflation. A lower inflation rate is good for the consumers. This means that the general price of a basket of goods would increase at a bare minimum on a year to year basis. Consumer can benefit as they would have a better purchasing power, which may improve real gdp. However, in recent countries like Japan, the decrease in oil prices may cause deflation and it shows that consumers are not willing to spend even though the prices of goods are decreasing yearly, which indirectly increases the real debt burden. Declining oil prices may boost consumer oriented stocks but may hurt oil-based stocks. It is estimated that 17–18% of S&P would decline with declining oil prices.
The oil importing economies like EU, Japan, China or India would benefit, however the oil producing countries would lose. A Bloomberg article presents results of an analysis by Oxford Economics on the GDP growth of countries as a result of a drop from $84 to $40. It shows the GDP increase between 0.5% to 1.0% for India, USA and China, and a decline of greater than 3.5% from Saudi Arabia and Russia. A stable price of $60 would add 0.5 percentage point to global gross domestic product.
Katina Stefanova has argued that falling oil prices do not imply a recession and a decline in stock prices. Liz Ann Sonders, Chief Investment Strategist at Charles Schwab, had earlier written that that positive impact on consumers and businesses outside of the energy sector, which is a larger portion of the US economy will outweigh the negatives.

Hedging as risk management

The use of hedging using commodity derivatives as a risk management tool on price exposure to liquidity and earnings, has been long established in North America. Chief Financial Officers use derivatives to dampen, remove or mitigate price uncertainty. Bankers also use hedge funds to more "safely increase leverage to smaller oil and gas companies." However, when not properly used, "derivatives can multiply losses" particularly in North America where investors are more comfortable with higher levels of risk than in other countries.
With the large number of bankruptcies as reported by Deloitte "funding is shrinking and hedges are unwinding." "Some oil producers are also choosing to liquidate hedges for a quick infusion of cash, a risky bet."
According to John England, the Vice-Chairman Deloitte LLP, "Access to capital markets, bankers' support and derivatives protection, which helped smooth an otherwise rocky road, are fast waning...The roughly 175 companies at risk of bankruptcy have more than $150 billion in debt, with the slipping value of secondary stock offerings and asset sales further hindering their ability to generate cash."
To finance exploration and production of the unconventional oil industry in the United States, "hundreds of billions of dollars of capital came from non-bank participants in leveraged loans] that were thought at the time to be low risk. However, with the oil glut that continued into 2016, about a third of oil companies are facing bankruptcy. While investors were aware that there was a risk that the operator might declare bankruptcy, they felt protected because "they had come in at the 'bank' level, where there was a senior claim on the assets they could get their capital returned."
A classic example of taking on too much risk through hedging is the 1982 collapse of Penn Square Bank caused by plummeting of the price of oil in 1981. Penn Square Bank had lent too much to exploration and production operators. Penn Square Bank caused the failure of Seafirst in 1982 and then Continental Illinois. When they failed and were liquidated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation the non-bank buyers or participants of bank energy credits of these leveraged loans participants were considered to be "unsecured claims", not "true sales" and they were not able to collect any capital.
According to a 2012 article in Oil and Gas Financial Journal, "the combination of the development of large resource plays in the US and the emergence of business models designed to ensure consistent dividend payouts to investors has led to the development of more aggressive hedging policies in companies and less restrictive covenants in bank loans."
At the fifth annual World Pensions Forum in 2015, Jeffrey Sachs advised institutional investors to divest from carbon-reliant oil industry firms in their pension fund's portfolio.