Oil may fall below US$30

Analysts said that despite the Paris attacks and resulting French airstrikes in Syria, prices would remain low for the rest of the year and into 2016 as oil markets stay oversupplied, with most estimates for 2015 ranging from production outpacing demand by 0.7-2.5 million barrels per day. (This file photo shows an oil well near Tioga, North Dakota - AFP)

AS oil traded at around US$35 a barrel this week for the first time since the financial crisis, there is a bet that crude prices may decline below US$30 and possibly at or below US$25 in the first quarter as global supplies grow next year.

London-based hedge fund manager Pierre Andurand, who’s been betting on falling prices since September 2014, expects global supplies to expand by 1.6 million barrels a day and in Opec (Organisation of Petroleum Exporters) nations by 900,000 barrels a day in the first half of 2016.