Washington: US President Donald Trump on Monday said that his administration will look into halting oil imports from Saudi Arabia after oil prices in the United States plummeted into negative.
“We’ll look at it,” Trump said on Monday when asked if the United States will block Saudi oil shipments into the United States after prices went negative earlier in the day.
Trump also announced that he is planning to add as much as 75 million barrels of oil to the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve as the oil prices crashed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
United States oil prices plunged to negative for the first time in history as the demand for energy collapsed in the backdrop of coronavirus pandemic.
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.
