Oil price ends negative on ‘Black Monday’

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Oil price

Web Report

Oil prices on Monday witnessed a turmoil as it broke all records.

It was ‘Black Monday’ as US WTI Crude price plunged to record one cent a barrel.

The steep decline was driven by investors closing out their positions ahead of the May contract expiry on Tuesday.

The steep decline was driven by investors closing out their positions ahead of the May contract expiry on Tuesday. Investors left holding the contracts will have to take physical delivery of the contracts as storage is quickly becoming an issue.

The historic crash in US oil was driven by glut of oil, shortage of storage facilities and massive 29 million barrels per day drop in demand.

London Brent North Sea oil for June delivery, was down only 6.3 percent at $26.30 per barrel.

The US benchmark WTI took bigger hit than Brent because main US storage facilities in Cushing, Oklahoma, were filling up and refineries were not processing crude fast enough. Therefore, WTI timespreads began to weaken as soon as US refiners cut runs.

“It’s a dump at all cost as no one wants delivery of oil,” said Stephen Innes, chief global market strategist at AxXI Trader.

“Basically, bears are out for blood. The steep fall in the price is because of the lack of sufficient demand and lack of storage place given the fact that the production cut has failed to address the supply glut,” said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at London-based AVA Trade.