LONDON, Dec 5: Crude oil prices plunged below $40 on Friday to their lowest levels in nearly four years, as worse-than-expected jobs data in the United States raised prospects of a severe fall in energy demand.

In London, Brent North Sea crude slid to $39.50 a barrel, the lowest level since the January 2005. Light sweet crude for January slid to $42 in New York, also a near four-year low.

Later on London’s InterContinental Exchange (ICE), Brent North Sea crude for delivery in January stood at $40.20, down $2.08 from Thursday’s close.

Light sweet crude for January was down $1.27 at $42.40 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX).

Oil prices have plunged by more than two thirds since reaching record high points above $147 in July, pulled down by a widening global economic slowdown that weighs on demand.

The tumble in prices is sharply reducing income for oil producing countries, including the world’s biggest Saudi Arabia and Russia. It is “way, way premature” to think that the market has hit bottom, said David Moore, a commodities strategist with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.—AFP