Wintry Years Keep Oil Men Shivering

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Byline: BRIAN O'CONNOR

A CHILL wind is blowing through the oil industry.

Before it dies, it could knock over a batch of vulnerable companies and force others to huddle together for shelter.

It might overturn a despot or two in the producer nations, which have a proclivity for despots. It might even tweak the tail of the mighty USA. And in Britain it threatens thousands of North Sea jobs.

The chill comes from a steep, two-year fall in crude prices. Demand faltered as Asia and then Latin America hit trouble, and supplier nations carried on pumping as if there were no tomorrow.

The resulting 55pc fall for the world's most traded commodity …