The extremely steep and fast oil price decline is hitting companies hard, with projects cancelled and workers being laid off. As analysts scramble to evaluate which companies are most vulnerable in the lower oil price environment, some are trying to figure out when oil prices might recover some of their recent losses.

For his part, author and analyst Daniel Yergin believes a structural change has taken place in which scarcity driven price pressure has given way to a period of slack demand and oversupply. “The expectations that have governed the world for over a decade have been overturned by a new reality,” he told the Wall Street Journal.

“At the current price, every company is cutting back and will be cutting back,” says Mr. Yergin, who believes oil prices could rebalance “halfway between $50 and $100” in the second half of this year. – Wall Street Journal