Oil prices crash below $3 per barrel for first time in 21st century
A gruesome combination of crumbling demand for crude and global storage filled to its brim has pushed oil prices to levels not seen in decades.
US benchmark, West Texas Intermediate, has fallen to the $3 range as global economies remain on lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, crushing crude demand. To add insult to injury, global oil storage is reaching its limits. The situation is so dire, in fact, that the Department of Energy is even considering paying domestic oil producers to keep crude in the ground.
US oil prices dropped as low as $4.04 per barrel, the lowest since NYMEX began trading oil futures in 1983, as investors resigned themselves to collapsed demand amid continuing nationwide lockdowns.