- Fundamental. Supply and demand. Demand slows due to economic slowdown in China and Europe. Supply increased substantially by US esp, the shale oil.
- Conspiracy. US and Saudi Arab conspired to manipulate the oil price to hurt Russia, which relies on oil exporting money to finance its wars in Ukraine.
- Conspiracy. OPEC esp. the Middle East oil exporting countries(such as Saudi Arab) aim to exploit the low oil price to hurt shale oil ...
Perhaps the most remarkable market movement in 2014 happened in the commodity market: the fast and significant drop of crude oil prices. The benchmark oil prices went down over 30% since Aug, and they seem to go down further. Last Thursday, after OPEC announced that it would take no reduction in existing production quota, the wretched oil price plunged even further.
So far a few reasons have been ventured to account for the dramatic change.