Oil prices are likely to continue falling well into 2015, the International Energy Agency has said.
The IEA, a consultancy to 29 countries, said weak demand and the US shale gas boom meant crude’s recent fall below $80 a barrel was not over.
On Friday, Brent crude, one of the major price benchmarks, traded at $78.13 a barrel, near a four-year low.
“It is increasingly clear that we have begun a new chapter in the history of the oil markets,” the IEA said.
“Barring any new supply problems, downward price pressures could build further in the first half of 2015.”
The organisation, set up after the “oil shock” of the early 1970s to advise major oil importing countries, said that pressure was building on the Opec oil producers’ group to restrict supply to bolster prices.
