Price of oil crashes, goes negative
The beatings will continue until morale improves: Due to the crash in demand due to the government-imposed Wuhan panic shutdowns, oil producers, who can’t turn off their oil wells, have run out of storage space and are now forced to pay others to take the oil off their hands, thus sending the price of oil into negative numbers.
Physical demand for crude has dried up, creating a global supply glut as billions of people stay home to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery fell more than 100% to settle at negative $37.63 per barrel.
Meanwhile, international benchmark, Brent crude, which has already rolled to the June contract, traded 8.9% lower at $25.58 per barrel.
While this crash is indicative of the entire crash of the economy, in the near long term it might be a good thing. If the government ever decides to release us from house arrest and people decide it is time to go back to normal, the low price of oil will help stricken businesses get back on their feet.
Then again, there is a very big “if” in that last sentence. I see no indication that our fascist state governors, especially in states run by Democrat governors, have the slightest interest in ending the shut downs. They like the almost absolute power it has given them over everyone, and that absolute power is corrupting them quite effectively. They might be making noises about “easing” the restrictions, but that is only political dishonesty. The bottom line will remain: They are now in control of everything everyone does, and have the right to give or take, as they please, whenever they please.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The beatings will continue until morale improves: Due to the crash in demand due to the government-imposed Wuhan panic shutdowns, oil producers, who can’t turn off their oil wells, have run out of storage space and are now forced to pay others to take the oil off their hands, thus sending the price of oil into negative numbers.
Physical demand for crude has dried up, creating a global supply glut as billions of people stay home to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery fell more than 100% to settle at negative $37.63 per barrel.
Meanwhile, international benchmark, Brent crude, which has already rolled to the June contract, traded 8.9% lower at $25.58 per barrel.
While this crash is indicative of the entire crash of the economy, in the near long term it might be a good thing. If the government ever decides to release us from house arrest and people decide it is time to go back to normal, the low price of oil will help stricken businesses get back on their feet.
Then again, there is a very big “if” in that last sentence. I see no indication that our fascist state governors, especially in states run by Democrat governors, have the slightest interest in ending the shut downs. They like the almost absolute power it has given them over everyone, and that absolute power is corrupting them quite effectively. They might be making noises about “easing” the restrictions, but that is only political dishonesty. The bottom line will remain: They are now in control of everything everyone does, and have the right to give or take, as they please, whenever they please.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The “New Green Deal” has arrived, delivered through a world wide disaster.
The likes of AOC and Bernie must be ecstatic!
Now what?
And there in lies the problem with such a vaporous and hollow thought process. It all sounds good, so aspirational, but when push comes to shove and someone actually has to have a functional plan to live a life………….there is nothing but lies.
China is buying up oil like Winthorpe and Valentine buying up orange juice futures on the Duke brothers. The world power structure has changed. The old guard is just slow on the uptake. For centuries, Russia, India, and China have vied to be top power in Asia. There can be only one. I wonder how chess player Putin is feeling today. https://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/china-the-only-respite-for-crude-sellers/
NavyNuke-
excellent cultural-reference.
Orange Juice Trade
Trading Places 1983
https://youtu.be/RLySXTIBS3c
6:35
Time for the Fed to do what it does with collapsing paper assets, and print fresh money to buy them up.
Except that it can’t do that with oil, because these are contracts for immediate delivery, and the Eccles Building is not equipped with a billion-barrel underground storage tank.
(Nor is China buying up oil; they ran out of storage space a month ago.)
Do not know if you have noticed, but the price of Diesel is under $2.00 in Animas while it is near $2.79 in Sierra Vista and other places. Somebody is gouging the consumer!!!!@
Wayne, Ya can’t post that without posting the follow up. Coming to America
https://youtu.be/h0GLVc4f02k
There can be only one, highlander. 4:44
https://youtu.be/_j6_H-PSml0
This is more than just an oil price, America is diversified. Other countries not so much. What will happen now?
How many countries are totally dependent upon the oil income. Most of the Middle East, Venezuela, west Africa, Russia, north Africa, Canada and Mexico… No wonder Trump signed an executive order calling up the reserve troops. Trouble is brewing.
The worst thing that could happen now (to put the nail in the coffin) is an electromagnetic pulse that would take down the grid, phones, and computers. The best way/only way to work from home, receive packages, get News or Watch entertainment, ordering online paying by credit card, is the web. Without that…
Yes, things can get worse.
The negative oil price is an artifact of futures contracts–the offending contract was expiring the next day, and a lot of speculators with no desire to take physical delivery of thousands of barrels of oil in Oklahoma and haul it off to a storage facility elsewhere had to get out of those contracts no matter what. The ~$20 number for the next contract is more accurate.
That said, oil storage (outside of the SPR, which I believe the Democrats are still blocking the use of) is set to completely fill up sometime in June if demand doesn’t go up. At that point, the price of oil *could* really go negative, as drillers would lose less money paying people to take oil off their hands than shutting down their wells and having to restart them later.
As far as China and the big picture goes, I highly recommend watching a few Peter Zeihan videos. YouTube is chock full of them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfyrURHpUcM
China only survives if the world lets them off the hook without serious punishment. If the world sues China and places liens on Chinese property and trade, China’s economy disintegrates. If the US embargoes China’s use of the dollar to perform international trade (this power was set up after 9/11), the result is largely the same.
I’ll have to disagree with you Dave. Crude oil storage is not the same as refined product storage. China’s refineries are running at full capacity with additional increases planned in the coming year. Cheap oil will enable government owned refineries to glut the refined product markets in Asia and make those in neighboring companies less profitable, with the goal of driving them out of business. An effective strategy in other markets. Its a big risk with big rewards if they pull it off in the petrochemical market. Once those neighboring refineries are shut down, China will justify the continued expansion of refinery construction. This will lead to a growing reliance by counties in their sphere of influence on Chinese production.
https://auto.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/oil-and-lubes/china-flexes-oil-refining-muscle-upping-pain-for-asian-rivals/73725004
Max–
Not a big fan of Coming to America, but I do enjoy the 1st Highlander movie.
A. Nonymous–
Thanks for that 1st paragraph. Futures-contracts are an animal unto themselves. (Fortunately, they provide liquidity….unless you’re on the wrong side of the trade.)
As for ‘suing China,’ …. hypothetically speaking of course, I prefer dosing the entire gulag with prompt-radiation, while raising the ambient air-pressure to 6psi.
Phil–
Diesel is hovering around 2.359 along the Lake Michigan coast. Premium grade gasoline is around 1.759, and plain old regular– 1.129 for the low so far. (and we have 23 cents of State gas taxes on those gallons.)
audio-visual entertainment:
Man In The High Castle
Death of Reichsfuhrer John Smith scene
[“the wages of tyranny are death”]
https://youtu.be/tdPStjdd4TA
2:13
“We’ve seen things, you and me. Other world’s, other lives’, we have that in common. It’s unbearable; to be able to look through that door and glimpse all the people you could have been, and know that out of all…..this is the one, you became.”
Max, Last night I was telling my wife that the only thing we are missing is the election of a “President Warrick” until we become characters in John Ringo’s “Centurion” novel. Global pandemic – check. Economic restructuring – check. Global warming pause/solar minimum – check. We only need the election of a Neo Comm savior archetype.
NavyNuke,
I haven’t read that book, but I am familiar with “Savior” type personalities (Sting playing the beautiful fade destined to be the savior in Dune comes to mind)
History is full of well intentioned dictators that wanted to re-create the world in their image. They never learn that the harder you squeeze, the more people slip through your fingers. It is an understatement of how United States has been so successful by not “squeezing at all” holding the open palm upward allowing people’s ability to work together willingly without force. Apparently, no matter where you’re from, we are all human with common wants and needs that unify us. Working together we can achieve anything.
Judging by the TV WHO infomercial/fundraiser, The people I heard was front and center was Obama’s wife, Bill Gates, and a few others whose political star is being forced to the top by the professional disinformation news agencies. Soulless Hillary was the perfect neocon savior archetype. Joe Biden is not the one, these others will be weak substitutes.
As you outlined, the stage is set, the pieces are in place, there’s no turning back on their plan now. Expect a surprise that no one saw coming, it is the only way their plan will work. Some will see him/her as a savior, others the antichrist.
President Trump is still despised by both sides, and is a wildcard. As president the power is “”already his””.
In this emergency, should something worse happen, (pandemic, economic collapse, millions out of work, food shortages, lockdown loss of freedoms, suspension of constitutional rights, the unavailability of drugs/hospitals, the over availability of alcohol… How much worse can it get?) Will he do the right thing? Or will something happen to force his hand that causes things to escalate going from bad to worse.
The events so far has been outside of his control, and he does not like being out of control. He’s not a puppet to dance for the deep state so expect some pushback soon.
This will be a brutal shoving match.