After the failure of its risky exploration strategy this year, Norwegian oil firm Statoil is cutting costs as fast and deep as it can to preserve cash for dividends

Gulf stock markets plunged on Sunday after OPEC's decision to keep crude output unchanged sent oil prices tumbling at the end of last week.

With a sustained price drop to $60 a barrel, North American shale drilling would be especially challenged in emerging fields such as some in Ohio and Louisiana, where costs are at the highest early in development, according to Citigroup and ITG.

Saudi Arabia and its OPEC allies’ firm stand against cutting crude output to slow the plunge in oil prices has set the energy world on a painful course that will leave the weakest behind, from governments to U.S. wildcatters.

Opec threw down the gauntlet to US shale oil producers by deciding not to cut its production, in a move that sent the oil price tumbling by more than 8 per cent to a four-year low.

Oil anchors world financial markets, and Opec has just decided to raise its anchor. The consequences could be profound, and go far beyond the power game between the traditional oil producers in the Middle East and the new generation of shale producers in North America.

Shares in the world’s biggest energy groups have tumbled in a market rout as plunging oil prices put at risk billions of dollars of investment and jeopardised future supplies of crude.

Putin Says Russia Doing Fine in Face of Tumbling Crude Prices

Even as Western sanctions over Ukraine bite, crashing oil prices are hitting Russia's economy and government finances.

Brent and West Texas Intermediate crudes fell to the lowest level in more than four years after OPEC failed to cut its output in response to a glut.