TEXAS- WTI Crude oil from West Texas crashed today with prices dipping below $0 for the first time. WTI ended the day at -$37.00 per barrel. The problem? Nobody in the country needs or wants crude oil right now. Nobody is driving their cars and many sectors of the economy are shut down.
Crude oil right now is about as worthless as a Feel The Bern 2020 t-shirt. Even hand sanitizer is a better investment than crude oil short term. With crude oil in the negative, a barrel of hand sanitizer is selling for about $1,400 on the open market today.
Industry analysts say there’s nobody in the United States buying crude oil. “How did you end up with negative oil prices today? This happens when a physical futures contract find no buyers close to or at expiry,” said Roger Diwan, Vice President of IHS Markets.
Right now, with storage facilities at capacity and nowhere to store new shipments, companies may start paying others to remove their oil supplies.
This is the first time in history oil prices fell below $0.
Photo by Zbynek Burival on Unsplash