Target had announced in November that it had agreed on a short list of advisers to facilitate the divestment of its Fairway project in the Permian Basin - the basin which accounted for 30% of all US unconventional oil and gas M&A activity in the year to September 30 2014 - with the aim of divesting it early this year.

Target shares the view of the International Energy Agency forecast on Monday that "a price recovery - barring any major disruption - may not be imminent, but signs are mounting that the tide will turn".

"While supply and demand forecasts have long pointed at a market imbalance and associated stock builds in 2H14 and beyond, few would have expected such a sudden price collapse," the EIA said.

"Today's market participants are not ruling out further declines, however, despite the recent rebound. How low the market's floor will be is anybody's guess. But the selloff is having an impact."

Hence the positive diagnosis that should eventuate by the end of this year.

Target managing director Laurence Roe said the company was feeling the effects of the steep and rapid fall in global oil prices, and is currently reviewing the valuation of its Permian Basin assets.

"In the event the sale is postponed, Target will continue to focus on maintaining production and looking for growth opportunities," he said.

The EIA believes the most tangible price effects are on the supply front, led by Canada and Colombia, the latter of which is particularly suffering economically as its economy depends so much on oil revenues.

"Upstream spending plans have been the first casualty of the market's rout," the EIA said.

"Companies have been taking an axe to their budgets, postponing or cancelling new projects, while trying to squeeze the most out of producing fields.

"For the most part the supply effects will not be felt immediately, but further down the road, through project delays and faster decline rates.

"Nevertheless, expectations of non-OPEC supply growth for 2015 have already been downgraded, with growth for the year adjusted downwards by 350,000bpd since last month's [EIA] report and more steeply so for 2H15.

"Colombia and Canada lead the declines. Expectations of US light, tight oil production growth have also been revisited, but so far the cuts do not exceed 80kb/d compared with our already conservative previous estimates, as many producers appear to be well hedged against short-term price drops."