George Osborne said that it is "vital" that customers should benefit from falling oil prices at the petrol pumps, in the cost of airfares and in their utility bills. The Chancellor tweeted that the savings made by companies as a result of lower oil prices must be "passed on to families". Osborne said he has launched a Treasury investigation into which companies are passing on the benefits of low oil prices to customers and which are not. Fuel companies have already reduced the cost of petrol after Danny Alexander, the chief secretary to the Treasury intervened. The big supermarket chains have cut the cost of a litre of unleaded close to the £1 mark. A Treasury spokesman said: "The Government is conducting studies of industries like the utilities and the airlines. We are examining if any action needs to be taken." Ministers said that they would be watching utilities companies and airlines "like a hawk" to ensure that they dropped their prices, the BBC reports. Lawrence Slade, the CEO of Energy UK said that savings on wholesale gas prices were being passed on to customers. "When people shop around they can easily find deals that are over £100 cheaper than this time last year and in line with cuts in wholesale energy prices," he said. Oil prices have halved over the past six months. Brent Crude, the global benchmark, has fallen from $115 per barrel last summer to less than $52 today. Falling oil prices could be good for consumers and businesses, The Guardian says. "Lower oil prices will lead to higher disposable incomes and cut business costs", the paper said. But Labour insisted that the Conservatives must do more to ensure that savings benefited consumers. Shadow energy secretary Caroline Flint said Osborne had done "absolutely nothing" to address firms' failures to adjust their pricing. "We need action, not another inquiry," Flint said. Oil price: stocks dive as US oil falls below $50 a barrel 6 January Stock markets around the world fell sharply yesterday as the price of US oil dipped below the symbolic threshold of $50 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate fell to $49.22, while Brent Crude, the global benchmark ended the day at $52.08. Experts now predict that oil prices could go as low as $40 or even $30 a barrel. Investors are concerned that the combination of weak demand for oil and a growing global glut will cause prices to continue their downward trend. The falling price is good news for consumers, who are enjoying lower petrol prices. In the UK all four big supermarkets have announced further fuel price cuts this week, which will bring petrol close to £1 a litre, the BBC reports. In the US, petrol is now below $2 a gallon at nearly 40 per cent of US petrol stations – the lowest level in six years. But the decline is not all good news. Sustained low prices could begin to "really hurt energy company stocks" says CNN, and are affecting jobs as well. "Falls in oil prices are going beyond many people's expectations. This will put pressure on the earnings of US energy firms," said Hirokazu Kabeya, senior strategist at Daiwa Securities. The biggest US stock losers on Monday were almost all in the energy sector – Noble Energy, Diamond Offshore Drilling and Anadarko Petroleum. Overall, energy companies had their worst day since last November, when oil first dipped below $70 per barrel. US oil production has increased significantly in recent years as fracking – or hydraulic fracturing – has spread across the country. As US output has increased, Opec has chosen not to restrict its own rate of production, leading to fears of a global glut. Simultaneously many parts of the world, including China and Europe, are gradually lowering their annual consumption of oil. The tumbling oil prices caused Asian shares to fall this morning and the euro is also approaching a new nine-year low against the dollar, Reuters reports. Oil price rebounds, sparking hopes of recovery 22 December 2014 Oil prices jumped by 2 per cent overnight, bringing up the cost of Brent crude by more than $1 per barrel to $62.64, but the gains come as Saudi Arabia's oil minister confirmed that there would be no cut in production despite the recent dramatic decline in oil prices. Saudi oil minister, Ali al-Naimi, said in Abu Dhabi on Sunday: "The kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other countries sought to bring back balance to the market, but the lack of cooperation from other producers outside Opec and the spread of misleading information and speculation led to the continuation of the drop in prices." According to al-Naimi, if producers outside Opec want to cut production "they are welcome, [but] we are not going to cut; certainly Saudi Arabia is not going to cut." In spite of al-Naimi's hard line, the overnight jump in the oil prices has given most major European stocks a lift. All the major European stock markets are up this morning, The Guardian reports, as energy companies make gains. The FTSE 100 has increased by 64 points to 6610, led by BP (up 2.2 per cent), Royal Dutch Shell (up 2.7 per cent) and Tullow Oil (up 2.5 per cent). According to Stan Shamu, an analyst at UK stockbrokers IG Markets, some investors believe that oil prices could continue their upward trajectory. "After seeing a rebound on Friday, many have been calling a bottom in oil prices and feel this is a beginning of a recovery." Opec's Secretary-General Abdullah al-Badri told Reuters on Sunday that he hoped to see a recovery in the price of oil by the second half of 2015. "We hope the price would rebound by the end of the second half of 2015," he said. "We can't see the market now, we have to wait until the end of the second half of 2015 to see how the market [will] react to these low prices." Oil price: North Sea oil fields 'close to collapse' 19 December The tumbling oil price has brought about a "huge crisis" for the UK's North Sea oil industry, an expert has warned. With oil prices now below $60 a barrel, it is "almost impossible to make money", Robin Allan, the chairman of the independent explorers’ association Brindex, told the BBC. "It's a huge crisis. This has happened before, and the industry adapts, but the adaptation is one of slashing people, slashing projects and reducing costs," he said. The announcement came after a volatile day of trading. Brent crude, the global benchmark, ended the day down 1 per cent at about $60 per barrel after having risen by as much as 3 per cent in intraday trading. In recent weeks, oil prices have slipped to their lowest levels in five-and-a-half years following weakening demand and concerns of a global oil glut. Up to £55bn worth of North Sea oil projects scheduled for 2015 could be cancelled due to the falling prices, the Daily Telegraph reports. Concerns over the profitability of North Sea oil have increased since Opec voted not to cut production in an attempt to arrest sliding prices when they met in Vienna last month. Iran's oil minister has publically criticised Opec's inaction. Bijan Zanganeh told the country's state petroleum news agency: "The prolongation of the downward trend of the oil price in world markets is a political conspiracy going to extremes." Sir Ian Wood, an adviser to the British government, predicted that the lower oil price would have huge ramifications around the world, and could lead to a wave of job losses at North Sea oil field over the next 18 months. The US-based oil company ConocoPhillips has already moved to cut 230 out of 1,650 jobs in the UK and some analysts predict that other large firms will make similar cost-cutting announcements in the coming months. However, the Department of Energy and Climate Change said yesterday that even though reductions in oil prices have proven "very challenging" for companies active in the North Sea, "we have seen very little evidence of new projects being cancelled or deferred in reaction to lower oil prices".

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