OPEC and lower global oil prices delivered a one-two punch to the drillers in North Dakota and Texas who brought the U.S. one of the biggest booms in the history of the global oil industry.

At this point in the oil slump, dreaded jobs cuts hardly come as a surprise anymore; this week, Talisman Energy let go of 200 employees while Neven energy cut 400. But how many total American jobs have low oil prices cost? A recent Forbes article estimates at least 75,000—about 12 percent of the nation’s oil and gas workforce—so far.

China’s Sinopec has become the latest oil major to cut its capital expenditure, after the slide in crude prices knocked nearly one-third from its 2014 profit.

Australia-based Woodside Petroleum is reportedly cutting 300 jobs and freezing pay in response to low oil prices.

TAPI faces an uncertain future with the recent oil price fall, ambiguity regarding transit via Afghanistan and an increase in the estimated project cost.

Deals for North Sea oilfields — which have been held back by the plummeting price of Brent crude — could soon come back on stream, as a new tax cut helps to draw in private equity investors.

European companies are increasing their focus on offshore projects, securing an increase of their financing facilities and forging joint ventures to reduce costs.

But now, with prices low, the risk of getting busted by Nigeria’s navy now outweighs the get-rich rewards of sabotaging pipelines, stealing oil and smuggling vast quantities of it onto international markets. Indeed, some of these thieves have reverted to plunking fish traps in the waters they helped pollute.

The United States will struggle to follow through on threats to impose deeper sanctions on the Russian energy sector, as European fears over collateral economic damage leave President Barack Obama's administration with diminished options.

The world’s biggest energy groups have sold record amounts of debt this year, taking advantage of historically low interest rates to plug cash shortfalls with borrowing, after a 50 per cent plunge in oil prices.