A further fall in equities continued Brent’s downward trend, closing December 15% lower than it started the month despite OPEC+ production cuts being announced.

December was another turbulent month for GBP on the back of Brexit headlines and year end economic data, dropping below 1.248 vs USD but recovering to 1.270.

Rystad Energy reports that 2018 has been the best year for oil exploration since 2015, with an estimation of 9.4 billion barrels discovered.