US oil prices fall into the negative in a record-low as demand vanishes

US oil prices have dropped into the negative as demand vanishes amid the coronavirus crisis.

Oil prices made the historic fall on Monday, hitting the lowest point on record ahead of the May contract’s Tuesday expiration.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures fell by below $0 for May, the lowest it has ever been since record-keeping began in March 1983, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

CME Group, which operates the exchange where WTI trades, even said on Monday that if prices drop below zero and into the negative for the upcoming contract, contractors would be paying buyers to take the oil in an attempt to stall the shutdown of fields long enough to outlast their competition in the industry.

Phil Flynn, a senior market analyst at Price Group Futures, told Fox News that the May contract is a ‘horror show’ and ‘heading into the worst delivery situation in history.’

‘With demand still dead and OPEC+ cuts not hitting fast enough, the market looks like it has no bottom.’

The steep crash in the oil market comes as many of the world’s major economies are still locked down due to the coronavirus outbreak,causing the global demand for crude oil to plummet by as much as a third.

Decreased demand has led to a massive oversupply of oil as buyers are now faced with concerns about where to store the surplus.

‘The curves are saying we have a big problem with the storage of oil right now,’ Bjarne Schieldrop, chief commodities analyst at SEB, told CNBC.

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