Welcome! Here are the website rules, as well as some tips for using this forum.
Need to contact us? Visit https://heatinghelp.com/contact-us/.
Click here to Find a Contractor in your area.

Price of oil

SlamDunk
SlamDunk Member Posts: 1,570
edited April 2020 in Oil Heating
(-) $16/barrel?!? That is a negative sign!

Oil plummets as storage capacity runs low, and a quirk in pricing wipes out one benchmark.
Something bizarre happened in the markets on Monday: The price of a barrel of oil went negative.

Oil prices tumbled as the economic crisis set off by the coronavirus pandemic continued to destroy demand for energy, and as concerns grew that storage tanks in the United States are near capacity and unable to hold all the unused crude. NYT

-$30/barrel





Comments

  • STEVEusaPA
    STEVEusaPA Member Posts: 6,506
    Probably smart to buy futures. You can go 18 mos in advance.
    I'm sure all the companies who lock customers in are going to really get clobbered if they didn't purchase downside protection.
    steve
  • SlamDunk
    SlamDunk Member Posts: 1,570
    I wonder what this will do to the economy. In the past, high prices were blamed for a poor economy. Recently, it was low prices hurting the economy. What will this do?
  • PerryHolzman
    PerryHolzman Member Posts: 234
    This has actually been predicted for at least a month. With the downturn in travel and reduction of Mfr worldwide due to Covid-19 - which added to a price war between the Russians and Saudis the oil producers have been producing more oil than demand for almost 3 months now.

    That's great while there is available storage tanks to fill up.

    Once those tanks are full... you get into a situation where producers may find it better to pay people to take their oil versus shutting down their wells and pumping stations.

    The prediction that we would get to this situation was made about a month ago... and without going an looking up the oil industry article, it appears that the prediction was accurate to less than a week on when it would occur.

    This will cause massive shutdowns of oil producing and potentially refining capability. Some of what is shut down may not come back for a long time (likely well after Chapter 7 or 11, or its equivalent in other parts of the world and when the new owners decide its worth it).

    However, if you heat with oil... A good time to install a few extra 250 gallon tanks and fill them up.

    Have a great day,

    Perry
    STEVEusaPA
  • SlamDunk
    SlamDunk Member Posts: 1,570
    My brother called to have mom's oil tank topped off @$1.99/g. That was before the drop in crude. Maybe he should wait and get paid to top it off! That would be different.

    when business is back to normal, the price of oil will sky rocket.
  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,165
    Where it's really going to create problems -- big problems -- is in oil producing nations which depend on that oil income. Some African nations... Venezuela... even Saudi Arabia and Russia. Fro that matter, parts of the UK. Not going to be fun.
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • Big Ed_4
    Big Ed_4 Member Posts: 2,762
    !0 years it is , 10 years it isn't ....
    I have enough experience to know , that I dont know it all
  • rick in Alaska
    rick in Alaska Member Posts: 1,457

    Where it's really going to create problems -- big problems -- is in oil producing nations which depend on that oil income. Some African nations... Venezuela... even Saudi Arabia and Russia. Fro that matter, parts of the UK. Not going to be fun.

    And Alaska!
    A vast majority of our state income is from oil revenue. I can't remember the number, but I believe for us to be able to keep things the status quo, oil needs to be around $75 per barrel. Our government higher ups have been trying to balance the budget the past year or two at the level it has been, so this should really push us back even farther.
    Rick