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Showing posts from April, 2020

US oil futures price below $0/barrel.

The WTI crude oil May month futures went below zero and even touched as low as -$37.63/barrel on the last day (i.e April 20, 2020) of contract expiry.  But before proceeding let's get to know what is WTI crude, futures contract, etc. WTI (West Texas Intermediate) crude is the benchmark of US crude oil and thus used to price crude extracted in the US, like the Brent crude is used as a benchmark to price crude oil produced in Europe, Middle East, and Africa. The quality of these 2 types of oil are different and WTI is considered superior to the Brent crude since it's less expensive to filter and produces less undesirable residue. Let's go back in time say it's February and you can make an agreement with an oil-producing company in the US to deliver you the WTI crude in May at $40/barrel and you expect the crude price to go high above $40/barrel in May. Now, tell me will you hit this agreement? Mind it you are not an oil producer or refiner you just want to cash your