Andy Rowell

Earlier this month, BP’s beleaguered Chief Executive Bob Dudley warned that the falling oil price had created a “raging gale” for the oil industry which could last for years.

One of the great debates about fracking is whether it heralds a great new chapter in the age of oil or whether it is a small blip in the dying days of the fossil fuel era.

The oil industry often prides itself in pushing the boundaries of technology. The whole fracking revolution has been driven by the industry pioneering new techniques to exploit oil and gas that was previously out of reach.

Everywhere you look there is carnage in the oil industry as the reality of low oil prices begins to bite. From North America, to the North Sea and the Arctic, the low crude oil price is reshaping the size, shape and prospects of the industry.

It is pretty hard nowadays to pass a gas station and not notice the plummeting price. Fuel prices have been falling so persistently that it appears that Americans have rediscovered their taste for gas guzzlers.

Twenty years ago the oil giant Shell was embroiled in two separate controversies, which still haunt the company to this day.