Washington: United States oil prices on Monday plunged to negative for the first time in the history as the demand for energy collapsed in the backdrop of coronavirus pandemic.
According to The New York Times, the concerns have grown that storage tanks in the United States were near capacity and unable to hold all the unused crude.
Following the unprecedented crash in oil prices, US stocks also plunged 592 points.
The May benchmark fell into negative territory, suggesting people who had oil to sell were willing to pay to have it taken off their hands.
The problem is that the US is running out of places to store its oil which is already being stockpiled on barges at sea, the Times reported.
With space to store oil scarce, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for May delivery crashed 300 per cent on Monday and ended trading at -$37.63 a barrel.
Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, is trading around USD 26 a barrel, having plummeted by as much as 70 per cent since the start of January as coronavirus lockdowns have destroyed global demand in crude, Al Jazeera reported.
