The price of a barrel of benchmark USA oil plunged to negative values and hit USD – 40 per barrel for the first time in history due to the COVID-19 pandemic that stopped economic activities all around the world, according to Business-Review.eu.
The futures contract for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil fell on Monday, April 20, to USD 40 per barrel. It was the contract with delivery in May and April 21 was the day of closing those contracts. Due to oversupply, there is no storage available for new shipments, so the buyers were willing to pay for someone to take the oil from their hands.
The heart of the USA pipeline is at Cushing, Oklahoma, where the storage capacity is at 76 million barrels. As of April 10, the tanks where 72 percent full so the storage is not available anymore.
