Oil prices slid to the lowest point in more than five years Friday as worries about a global glut of oil continued to weigh on the market.

The recent sharp falls in the oil price require further adjustments to asset values around the world. Oil was in most people’s forecasts and commentaries at about $110 a barrel earlier this year, but is now selling for under $70.

Sir Ian Wood, the Aberdeen-based billionaire and energy industry veteran, has given warning that tumbling oil prices will have a “horrible effect” on North Sea prospects.

A sharp drop in oil prices since the summer is creating a heap of trouble for Norway.

Shares in Vladimir Yevtushenkov’s Sistema Group fell more than 35 per cent this week, amid growing concern that Russian investigators will try to reclaim Rbs140bn ($2.7bn) in dividends that the group has received from its oil company Bashneft .

The fallout from Russia's decision to abandon its ambitious South Stream pipeline deal continued Dec. 3, as Italian energy services firm Saipem announced that it would lose almost $2 billion because of Moscow's move

After OPEC’s announcement last week that it would not be cutting production, oil prices fell dramatically.

China also has promised more than $120 billion since May to Africa, Southeast Asia and Central Asia, including a $40-billion New Silk Road fund and a $50-billion Beijing-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

USA sees shale gas production decline, no progress observed in shale gas development abroad

Russia did not ask OPEC for production cuts.

ОПЕК поставила нефтяную отрасль перед сложным выбором

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.