After Historic Plunge US Oil Prices Rebound Into Positive Territory, Trump Seeks To Add To Oil Reserve

After trading in the negative, US oil prices have bounced back today. The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for May delivery was up $38.73 at $1.10 a barrel by 0117 GMT after settling down at a discount of $37.63 a barrel in the previous session. Owing to the low prices of oil, the US President Donald Trump has also announced that the US is ‘looking to’ add 75 million barrels of oil to its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).

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New Delhi: After trading in the negative, US oil prices have bounced back today. According to the news agency Reuters, the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for May delivery was up $38.73 at $1.10 a barrel by 0117 GMT after settling down at a discount of $37.63 a barrel in the previous session. The May contract expires on Tuesday and traders are more interested in the June delivery. The June contract, jumped $1.72 cents, or 8.4 percent, to $22.15 a barrel. The reports also said that the Global benchmark Brent crude for June delivery was up 49 cents, or 1.9%, at $26.06 per barrel. On Monday the United States crude oil prices plunged below zero due to the fall in demand for energy fuels caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The price of US crude oil collapsed by more than 105 percent to -$2 per barrel in a matter of hours creating a global supply glut as billions of people across the globe remained indoors to contain the spread of the deadly virus. According to a Reuters report, the May US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) contract fell $17.37, or 99 percent, to $0.15 a barrel at 1.50 PM EDT after touching an all-time low of $2.26. Brent was down $1.76, or 6.3 percent, to $26.32 a barrel. The unprecedented change in consumption of fossil fuel forced oil producers to pay buyers to take the glut of crude oil, which was tough for them to store, as rising stockpiles of crude oil loomed in oil storage facilities. On the US stock market front, investors bailed out of the May contract ahead of expiry on Monday because of a lack of demand for the actual oil. The fall in US crude oil could also be attributed to the recent output cut agreement between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies. Reports by PTI say that an agreement between top producers to cut output by 10 million barrels a day was also having very little impact as people continued to stay home due to the pandemic and restrictions on travel have not been lifted. US adding 75 million barrels of oil to national reserve: Trump Owing to the low prices of oil, according to an IANS report the US President Donald Trump has also announced that the US is ‘looking to’ add 75 million barrels of oil to its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). The SPR is a supply of emergency crude oil which is held by the United States Department of Energy. Established in the 1970s to reduce disruptions in supplies of petroleum products, the SPR is the world’s largest supply of emergency crude oil. Trump is now considering the move because of the record low prices of oil. Reports say Trump said on Monday, “Based on the record low price of oil that you have been seeing, it is at a level that is very interesting to a lot of people," He added, “We are looking to put as much as 75 million barrels into the reserves themselves that would top it out," he said, adding "we would get it for the right price," he said. As of Friday, the SPR held 635 million barrels of crude oil, including 384.7 million barrels of sour crude and 250.3 million barrels of sweet crude. Also Watch: