Oil drops below $45

Crude oil prices plummeted to their lowest level in nearly six years on Tuesday, trading below $45 a barrel.

Bloomberg reports prices fell amid speculation that U.S. oil stockpiles would increase, worsening the supply glut.

Goldman Sachs Group predicts crude needs to fall to $40 a barrel in order to “re-balance” the market.

“Prices continue to free-fall and there is little that can stop them,” Amrita Sen, chief analyst at Energy Aspects in London, said, according to Bloomberg. “OPEC remains the only factor that can stabilize markets in the short term. But with the group out of the picture, the market is looking elsewhere for a tangible reaction.”

The tumbling price of crude has sent gas prices across the U.S. to new lows.

The low price of oil is not helping producers, however, as more are beginning to rethink operations for 2015.