China News Agency, Houston, April 20 (Reporter Zeng Jingning) On April 20, local time, US crude oil futures-West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil (WTI) fell into a negative value for the first time in history, which means the first time in the history of oil trade There have been cases where the seller must pay the buyer the cost of buying crude oil futures.
According to the US Media Market Watch, WTI is one of the most important benchmark oil prices in international crude oil trade. On that day, its May crude contract price plunged 305.97% to close at -37.63 USD / barrel. It once touched -40.32 USD / barrel, which is the lowest transaction price in WTI's history.
Reuters said oil traders must deliver WTI's May crude oil contract by April 21. A large number of traders dumped their contracts before this deadline, mainly because the current US oil inventory space is about to be filled, which dampens buyer confidence.
The media said that hundreds of millions of barrels of crude oil are currently pouring into storage facilities around the world. Many buyers even rented storage tanks for offshore tankers. About 160 million barrels of oil are currently stored in tankers around the world.
In the United States, data released by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) on the 15th showed that U.S. crude oil inventories increased by 19.2 million barrels per week, the largest weekly increase; gasoline weekly stocks increased by nearly 5 million barrels, and distillate weekly stocks increased. 6.3 million barrels.
The National Public Radio said the US oil storage base in Cushing, Oklahoma, is expected to be fully operational within a few weeks.
According to the "Houston Chronicle", although the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC oil producers recently reached an agreement to reduce oil production, they decided to reduce average daily crude oil production by 9.7 million barrels between May and June. However, due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, millions of people around the world stayed at home and were unable to travel, resulting in a sharp drop in demand for oil, and international oil prices were still under pressure.
Bjornal Tohagen, head of oil markets at energy consulting services company Rystad Energy, said oil is experiencing a rare oversupply. The problem of global supply and demand imbalances has begun to show up in prices. The company's oil market analyst Louise Dixon said that the current cost of bankruptcy of some oil companies may be lower than the cost of handling excess oil products.
Even so, US Consumer News and Business Channel believes that the market outlook for the oil industry is not so bleak. The plunge in WTI futures contract prices is related to the delivery date. The media believes that after April 21, its price will rebound to $ 20 / barrel. The media pointed out that the international benchmark oil price-North Sea Brent crude (Brent crude) also fell sharply on the 20th, but far from the weakness of WTI.
It is worth noting that it is unclear whether the WTI oil price crash will affect consumers.
According to data from Gasbuddy, the US gasoline price monitoring website, the national average retail price of gasoline has fallen for 8 consecutive weeks. Last week, the national average retail price of gasoline fell 5 cents to $ 1.78 per gallon, and the average retail price of diesel fell 2.9 cents to $ 2.49 / gallon. (Finish)