Negative WTI Offers Glimpse of Future for Oil Market in Meltdown
- Losses widen as traders adjust to the idea of negative prices
- The glut of oil is so big there’s not enough room to store it
Pumpjacks operate on oil wells in Crane, Texas.
Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
This article is for subscribers only.
Traders may have hoped that Monday’s dramatic collapse in U.S. oil prices below zero for the first time in history was an aberration.
But on Tuesday the whole global oil market woke up to the reality that the stomach-churning drop in expiring May futures might be a foretaste of what’s to come, as millions of barrels of oil go unused and the world’s tanks rapidly fill to the brim.