US Crude Oil Prices Drop To $10 Per Barrel

The Prices of Crude Oil in the United States has dropped to $10/barrel.

The current price rate is the lowest it has gotten in the past 22 years.
Ahead of Wall Street opening the US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for May delivery sank to $10.77 — the lowest level since 1998.

Trade, however, was also technically driven as investors closed out their positions ahead of the May contract expiry Monday. The June contract was down 9.7 per cent at $22.60.

“The real problem of the global supply-demand imbalance has started to really manifest itself in prices,” said Rystad Energy analyst Bjornar Tonhaugen.

“As production continues relatively unscathed, storage is filling up by the day. The world is using less and less oil and producers now feel how this translates in prices.”

The European benchmark contract, London Brent North Sea oil for June delivery, was down 6.5 per cent at $26.27 per barrel.

Signs that the coronavirus may have peaked in Europe and the United States failed to lift Asian and European financial markets generally.

Traders are instead becoming more and more concerned that oil storage facilities are reaching their limits, as stockpiles continue to build owing to the crash in demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.