Oil prices will just not stop falling. Brent crude is down again today, to the lowest level since May 2009. This morning it dropped below $50 for the first time in six years.
It has now surged back.
This followed West Texas Intermediate crude oil, the other benchmark price, which dropped below $50 two days ago. Earlier today WTI broke below $47 for the first time in six years too.
Both are down by more than half since this time last year, when the price was well over $100.
At 3.16 p.m. GMT (10.16 a.m. ET) Brent had fought back up at $51.47 a barrel, above the $50 threshold and slightly gaining 0.71% from its previous value.
While WTI crude at 3.15 p.m. GMT (10.15 a.m. ET) was sold at $49.03, after earlier this morning it dipped as low as $46.86 a barrel.
This is how WTI looked at about 10 a.m. GMT (5 a.am. ET):
Nobuyuki Nakahara, a former oil executive and ex-member of the Bank of Japan's policy board, told Reuters on Wednesday he also expected further price falls.
"Oil prices are likely to keep falling due to slower Chinese growth and because the years of prices above $100 before the recent plunge were 'abnormal' historically," he said.
"I would not be surprised if the price falls to as low as around $20... It is purely due to supply and demand. There is a ceiling for oil because high energy prices dampen economic growth," he added.
Here's Brent again in some historical context. If the price keeps tumbling below about $45 per barrel it'll break lower than the 2008-9 period, towards levels last seen in 2006:
