Yesterday I liberally applied it to the seams in my driveway to kill weeds and fire ants.

Make me wish that there were somewhere to go...

Thanks for the price replies. Everybody else including lurkers, please!

Make me wish that there were somewhere to go...

Update (1250ET): The CME just issued a statement that May WTI Futures can trade negative, which sent the May contract reeling to a $4 handle (low $4.04)...

Man, I wish I knew more about futures trading. There's a shit-tonne of money to be made here.

Somehow.

WTI is West Texas Intermediate barrel (42gal) of crude oil.

Update (1325ET): And just like that, a $2 handle ($2.24) for May WTI...

The May contract - obviously - is down 100%...

Does that mean I can buy crude at $0.01 per barrel? I'll take 50,000.

Update (1425ET): And there it is... May WTI just traded below zero for the first time ever (trading below NEGATIVE $40 per barrel)...

May is down over 300% today...and June is down 18%.

I'd hold out if I were you...

(Edit) My phones are ringing off the hook. I don't know what to think. I may very well be asleep and dreaming.

I can't tell the difference anymore.

(Edit 2)NEGATIVE $40 per barrel)...

That makes ~$105 negative swing since WuFlu started. I hope that little bitch Gretta is happy.

ino.com for delayed but free quotes and market information

It's now down to -$18.20/bbl how is that even possible?

I don't honestly know, Loddy. I wish Arete and the Market-Wrap-Up fellas were still here.

I wish Arete and the Market-Wrap-Up fellas were still here.

Amen, I hope that they're all alive and well, it was a knowledgeable group.

here's the last post from almost a decade ago

freedom4um.com/cgi-bin/re....cgi?ArtNum=119069&Disp=0

Arete

That is a name from out of the past. ;)

(Edit 2)NEGATIVE $40 per barrel)...

That makes ~$105 negative swing since WuFlu started. I hope that little bitch Gretta is happy.

That is pretty darn wild.

Yeah Greta Thunberg is living in a bubble. ;)

As Roger Diwan explained in further detail, "speculators found themselves unable to resell the WTI contract, and have no storage booked to get delivered the crude in Cushing, OK, where the delivery is specified in the contract. This means that all the storage in Cushing is booked, and there is no price they can pay to store it, or they are totally inexperienced in this game and are caught holding a contract they did not understand the full physical aspect of as the time clock expires."

So what happens now?

Well, some stability appears to have been restored, because since its settlement close around -$37, May WTI has recovered all its losses for the day and was last trading just above $0.

Gawd, I love the smell of napalm all day long.

Dakkie, I think we're gonna need a bigger tank. By tomorrow morning.

Buy storage tank futures.

Seems to be affecting the markets. Don't know exactly what is happening.

(edit) "US officials are now studying the North Korean line of succession."

Criminy! What are we paying these "(unIntelligence) agencies" for??? Most likely it will be his sister, the "head" of propaganda or whatever the hell she is.

Not quite classified info...

Kim Yo-jong: the sister of Kim Jong-un, fast 'becoming his alter ego'

The North Korean leader’s trusted propagandist-in-chief is in the ascendancy

From producing an ashtray during a cigarette break en route to a nuclear summit to issuing a statement in praise of the US president, Kim Yo-jong has become the single most important figure in the North Korean regime after her brother, the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un.

Since representing Kim at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Yo-jong has not only acquired prestigious titles within the ruling Workers’ party. She is rumoured to be the brains behind Kim’s carefully constructed public image, at home and abroad. In return, she enjoys the absolute confidence of her brother, a leader capable of ordering the execution of his own uncle for alleged treason.

www.theguardian.com/world...im-yo-jong-the-sister-of-kim-jong-un- fast-becoming-his-alter-ego

(Edit) Damn, the auto link didn't work. Maybe if you cut & paste and take out the space, it might work. Sorry.

Seems like a heart procedure may have gone poorly for lil kim.

My, ten year past its expiration date, heart bleeds for him. The little 'effer is only 36.

All of Asia can cry me a river. "Eff 'em." - Esso, 2020.

Ask my dad about the Philippines. It's a really long distance call. The longest.

I just realized that when Dad brought home a film tube of 1944 Filipinas, One Centavo coins, that I got out of Mom's safe after she passed, that he was only 19 at the time.

The coins seem to be copper, about the size of a US quarter. Gave one to my tax accountant, Christa, she loved it. Probably worth nothing, maybe a million. So much the better, I'm the end of the line.

Hell, I can't remember me being 19, let alone my dad.

Probably worth nothing, maybe a million. So much the better, I'm the end of the line.

Prices vary in Ebay

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html? _from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1311.R1.TR1.TRC0.A0.H0.X1944+filipina. TRS0&_nkw=1944+one+centavo+filipinas&_sacat=0

Oil crash explained: How are negative oil prices even possible?
April 20, 2020 9.02pm EDT

Atif Kubursi

Professor Emeritus of Economics, McMaster University

Disclosure statement Atif Kubursi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. Partners McMaster University McMaster University provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation CA. McMaster University provides funding as a member of The Conversation CA-FR. We believe in the free flow of information Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.

It’s hard to believe that the price of any commodity, let alone oil, can dip into negative territory. But that’s just what’s happened to oil prices.

COVID-19 has prompted lockdowns, shuttered factories and stopped people from travelling. The global economy is contracting.

The pandemic has also reduced global demand for oil by about 29 million barrels a day from about 100 million a year ago. OPEC and other producers agreed to cut production by 9.7 million barrels a day, far less than the decrease in demand, leaving a huge surplus of oil on the market and no buyers.

Storage capacity on land has filled up quickly. Many oil-importing countries have stored large quantities of oil, taking advantage of cheap prices that may not last.

Some oil producers, hoping to maintain their market share, have taken to storing their excess oil at sea, leasing tankers at high costs. Some are believed to be paying in excess of US$100,000 per day for each tanker. Oil prices will come back up

So how have Alberta oil prices and even future prices for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) slipped into negative territory?

It starts with the futures’ contracts for WTI — oil to be delivered in a few months at today’s price. It lost US$6 a barrel on Monday, fetching US$11.66, but ended the day at -US$37 as holders of future contracts tried to dump their contracts before oil is actually delivered with nowhere to store it.

But Alberta oil, primarily derived from oilsands (referred to as Western Select), typically sells at US$10 to US$15 below the price of WTI, because it has to be extracted from deep rocky terrain. That makes it harder to refine, and it also has to be transported thousands of kilometres to American refineries. An oil refinery is seen in Kansas. Oil from Alberta’s oilsands is processed at American refineries. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Charlie Riedel

And so Alberta oil prices have become negative in the sense that the benchmark price is now lower than the cost of production, transport and storage.

This state of affairs cannot be expected to last for long. Producers, in the short term, may accept prices below their variable cost as long as they are able to pay some of the costs they will incur even if oil production shuts down.

As time passes, more and more rigs will stop operating (technically, a few will be kept operational in order to avoid being compromised) and a new balance between supply and demand will be established at prices that exceed total average cost. But this doesn’t bode well for either Alberta or the United States. Collateral damage

Alberta oil is now the collateral damage of the oil war between Russia and Saudi Arabia, with COVID-19 launching an additional attack. Either of these two factors could have disrupted Alberta’s oil production. But the Saudi-Russia hostilities combined with the global pandemic have proven to be catastrophic for Canada, and could have a similar outcome for the U.S. energy industry.

Russia and Saudi Arabia depend heavily on their oil revenues to sustain their economies. Of course, Saudi Arabia’s economy is less diversified than the Russian economy, but both share a similar distortion, where oil revenues represent a very high share of their GDPs (Saudi Arabia about 50 per cent, Russia 38.9 per cent), budgets (Saudi Arabia 87 per cent and Russia 68 per cent) and exports (Saudi Arabia 90 per cent and Russia 59 per cent. It’s difficult to believe that either country can do with such low prices.

Russia needs a price of US$60 a barrel to balance its government budget and even a higher price to balance its current account, meaning exports of goods and services minus imports of goods and services, plus net short-term capital transfers. Saudis also need a much higher oil price

Saudi Arabia, which remains the lowest-cost oil producer in the world, can make money when the price per barrel exceeds US$20, and Russia can at a price of US$40. Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al-Saud, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister, leads a recent virtual summit of the G20 energy ministers at his office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Saudi Energy Ministry via AP)

But making a profit when prices are higher than cost is not sufficient. Saudi Arabia needs an US$80-per-barrel price to balance its budget, realize its plans to diversify its economy and sustain a heavily subsidized economy. In the balance is the stability of both the Russian and Saudi Arabian political systems and current regimes.

The longer the COVID-19 pandemic lasts, the greater the damage oil producers will endure. It’s hard to tell now how high oil prices will rise once the pandemic subsides. They will likely go higher as marginal producers are eliminated, but not for long. Using oil and other fossil fuels is no longer consistent with avoiding the expected disasters of climate change. Oil is increasingly becoming a stranded asset.

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Emily Costello
Deputy Editor