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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.

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.

Just how low can the oil price go? What was unthinkable even a few months ago is now becoming distinctly probable, even likely. As analysts dissect the ramifications for the oil industry of $40 dollar barrel, oil traders are now thinking that the price of crude will halve that to a staggering $20 a barrel. Prices have not been that low for twenty years.

If you had Googled “fossil fuels” and “stranded assets” a few years ago, you would have probably got no hits. But how times change.

And so the free-fall continues. The price of Brent crude has fallen this morning below $60 a barrel for the first time since July 2009. The price of US crude is below $55.

Last week we exposed ExxonMobil’s Outlook for Energy as a corporate fantasy rather than a forecast. ExxonMobil's head of public affairs called our work ill-informed and "odious" but chose not to answer our arguments...

The US shale industry faces a Darwinian struggle over the next few months as only the fittest producers will survive as the price of crude plunges to $50 a barrel, the Bank of America has warned.

It is billed as Europe’s Number 1 shale gas conference. Next week, over 500 people will descend on Poland for the 5th annual “Shale Gas World Europe” conference.

The oil industry is in surprisingly bullish mood. As America prepares to go to the polls today in the crucial mid-term elections, Republicans have signalled that, if victorious, they will immediately push to free up exports of gas and oil and pass legislation forcing him to approve the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.

The "clock is ticking". "Little time left". The "Starkest Warning Yet". The "Final Warning". Just four of the headlines from around the world of yesterday's UN report on climate change.