After hitting 11-year lows on Wednesday, prices of both UK Brent and US crude tanked to 14-year lows on Thursday.
Brent was down 4.15% at $32.89 (£22.49) at 7 a.m. GMT (2 a.m. ET), and US crude was down 3.84% at $32.66 (£22.33). Both reached levels not seen since 2002, when the oil price was recovering from the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Since then the price has recovered slightly, however, and, at 1:02 p.m. GMT (10:02 a.m. ET) Brent is down 3.18% at $33.14 (£22.76) and US crude is down 3.02% at $32.95 (£22.63). Those are still levels not seen since 2002.
Here's the earlier Brent price in context (Investing.com'sce graph covers a maximum of 10 years, meaning we can't see the most recent time the price was this low — that's how bad things are):
Investing.com
What's driving the price down? Lots of things. Oil started January on the back foot thanks to escalating tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and traders have been jittery ever since.
The immediate catalyst for Thursday's collapse appears to be China. China weakened the value of its yuan currency by 0.51% to 6.5646 against the US dollar overnight, the biggest drop since August.
Stock markets are also in turmoil — China's market "circuit breaker" was triggered for the second time in four days, halting trade after a 7% collapse in 15 minutes. That has had a knock-on effect for Asian markets, sending them falling to three-month lows.
In the context then, you can understand why oil traders are reaching for their tin hats on Thursday.
Business Insider
What's driving the price down? Lots of things. Oil started January on the back foot thanks to escalating tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and traders have been jittery ever since.
The immediate catalyst for Thursday's collapse appears to be China. China weakened the value of its yuan currency by 0.51% to 6.5646 against the US dollar overnight, the biggest drop since August.
Stock markets are also in turmoil — China's market "circuit breaker" was triggered for the second time in four days, halting trade after a 7% collapse in 15 minutes. That has had a knock-on effect for Asian markets, sending them falling to three-month lows.
In the context then, you can understand why oil traders are reaching for their tin hats on Thursday.