Crude Ends Volatile Year Below $45

Oil's collapse this year ended a bull market that began in 2002, when crude traded at $17.85 a barrel. Prices jumped 57% in 2007 to $95.98 a barrel. Prices increased rapidly 2008, fueled by speculation that soaring growth from China, India and other emerging economies would outpace demand for crude. A weaker dollar helped drive up prices to a record $147.27 a barrel on July 11 as investors dumped investments in the U.S. currency for crude.

Prices, which many industry analysts described as out of control, tumbled in July as a credit crisis in the U.S. mushroomed into a global slump in consumer spending and industrial production. Earlier this month, crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange went for $33.87, the cheapest pricetag on a barrel of oil in almost five years.

Not even hurricanes Gustav and Ike in the Gulf of Mexico in September or the Middle East conflict between Israel and Hamas have been able to stop crude's slide.

The U.S. losing nearly 2 million jobs since the recession began a year ago. The unemployment rate in November jumped to 6.7%, a 15-year high, as employers eliminated a staggering 533,000 jobs in that month alone.

Demand for oil has fallen so fast, buyers have had difficulty finding somewhere to store it at the end of the year.

The January contract, which expired Dec. 19, settled at $33.87, the lowest level since early 2004 as brokers and traders attempted to unload supply for whatever price they could get. U.S. stockpiles have risen at the key storage facility in Cushing, Okla., and tankers carrying millions of gallons of crude float around the world with no destination in mind in hopes that prices will rise.