Oil bulls finally caught a break as prices capped their first weekly advance since November.

Oil advanced after the International Energy Agency lowered forecasts for supplies from outside Opec and an industry report showed US companies had reduced drilling activity.

The oil price decline of 2014 upended the geopolitical chessboard. Worth watching in 2015 will be who can recover and dominate play - Opec, Vladimir Putin or US shale drillers.

The dynamic of the new oil shock is moving fast - maybe too fast for the fragile global economic recovery, writes Liam Dann.

It couldn't be better timing for Kiwis as standard-grade petrol nudges below $2 a litre for the first time in two and a half years.

Billionaire wildcatter Harold Hamm, a founding father of the United States shale oil boom whose fortune has fallen by more than half in the past three months, says US drilling will slow as producers....

It wouldn't be the first time the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries has met in an atmosphere of deep division, bordering on outright hatred.

World markets fell overnight, pulled down by poor economic news and the surprise announcement that the International Energy Agency would release oil from strategic reserves.

President Barack Obama received two pieces of good news as he hit the campaign trail on the West Coast last week.

Equities in Europe and on Wall Street advanced overnight amid optimism about a recovery in the US labour market.

Gold hit a record high on world markets overnight, but equities fell as investors worried about the impact on consumer spending and corporate profits of high oil prices.

Investors flocked to oil and gold on world markets overnight amid escalating tensions in the Middle East, with violence in Libya gathering steam.

Equities on Wall St were up overnight, lifted by better-than-expected earnings from Exxon Mobil and a pick-up in US consumer spending that surpassed forecasts.

Equities on Wall Street began the final five-day trading week of the year on a positive note amid takeover news and optimism about the global economy.

The brown spots run like a trail of blood down the deserted coastline near this fishing village. Just underneath a handful of sand lies spilled oil.