Oil and gas projects worth $380 billion have been postponed or cancelled since 2014 as firms slash costs to survive the oil price crash, including $170 billion of projects planned between 2016 and 2020, energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie said.

Crude oil prices have fallen by 70 per cent since mid-2014 to just over $30 per barrel as soaring global production leaves hundreds of thousands of barrels a day without a buyer, while demand is slowing markedly.

“The impact of lower oil prices on company plans has been brutal. What began in late-2014 as a haircut to discretio-nary spend on exploration and pre-development projects has beco-me a full surgical operation to cut out all non-essential operational and capex,” said Wood-Mac’s upstream analyst Angus Rodger.