Oil prices fall: some practical consequences

Since last summer, oil prices collapse. Within months, a barrel ("light sweet crude" and Brent) lost nearly 50%, falling below 50 dollars. Overall, importing countries are looking forward to this decrease, while for some big producers, the drop in oil resources is a big gap to win.

In any case, this decline has an impact at the global level, as the global economy is dependent on black gold. Here are some of the indirect consequences and sometimes unexpected from this.

The oil boilers operating at full

Blessed are the households that heat with oil, the price of fuel is dependent on oil prices. This represents more than 4 million households in France. For them, the energy bill lightweight, oil liter rising from 90 to 80 cents between late 2013 and late 2014. "If this trend continues during the winter, the invoice homes should be between 15% and 20% below that of last winter, equivalent climatic conditions, "said Stephan Silvestre, a specialist in energy risk ( ).

The downside: the boiler is often outdated, it could exacerbate air pollution.

Oil "degrease"

The drop in oil prices led the oil giants to restrict their exploration programs. This results in suspended projects even stopped. And by extension, all the subcontractors this sector are struggling. 9000 job cuts have already been announced in the French-American group of oil service Schlumberger.

Penalized clean energy

The rise in oil prices in recent years had led many investors to finance the development of alternative energy, renewable (wind, solar, hydro, biomass ...). "High oil prices (encouraged) companies to invest in energy efficiency, says Valerie Lemaigre, chief economist of the Cantonal Bank of Geneva. The decline in gross night this dynamic competitiveness. »

Cheap airline tickets?

With the decline in oil prices, the expenditure of the airlines are getting lighter, but it will (unfortunately) not necessarily be reflected in ticket prices. "In a context of crisis and fierce competition where the prices of airline tickets are already very low, companies prefer to enjoy this breath of fresh air or to bail out their banks or increase their cash flow," said Frédéric Beniada and journalist in France Info and specialist aviation matters.