Crude oil price is bad: On April 20, 2020, US time, crude oil futures for May delivery once fell to -40 USD/barrel. The main reasons of "negative oil price" are not only production cost, but also key factors such as limited time, oversupply and urgent inventory. Because there is not enough oil storage space, it is difficult for traders to find or establish a storage base within a short time after receiving the oil spot if they do not process the May contract as soon as possible. Facing the present situation, fewer and fewer refineries and enterprises are willing to buy oil spot. When the transportation cost of crude oil is higher than the economic value of oil itself, it will lead to the situation that producers have to lose money and let buyers buy oil.

A negative amount of crude oil means that the transportation cost or storage cost exceeds its own value. Crude oil is customarily called crude oil. Dark brown viscous oily liquid with green fluorescence and special smell. It is a mixture of alkanes, cycloalkanes, aromatic hydrocarbons and olefins.

Second, the main components are carbon and hydrogen, accounting for 83 ~ 87% and11~14% respectively; There are also a small amount of sulfur, oxygen, nitrogen and trace elements such as phosphorus, arsenic, potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, nickel, iron and vanadium. Specific gravity 0.78 ~ 0.97, molecular weight 280 ~ 300, freezing point -50 ~ 24℃. Crude oil can be refined to obtain various products, such as fuel oil, solvent oil, lubricating oil, grease, paraffin, asphalt, liquefied gas, aromatic hydrocarbons and so on. , and provide fuel, raw materials and chemical products for all sectors of the national economy.

Third, because of the epidemic, global demand has plummeted, and oil storage facilities are running out of capacity. As the delivery date of futures approached in May, the price of WTI crude oil futures plummeted because traders were forced to close their long positions to avoid buying physical crude oil without storage capacity.

Simply put, futures in May all fell. The futures in May will be closed tomorrow. If you don't move your position today, you will get 40000 gallons of oil in one hand. Where would you put it? The storage fee is gone. Therefore, those who haven't moved their positions up to now will try their best to sell them, regardless of the price, free delivery or reverse posting, and they will close their positions anyway.

4. Bob Yawger, head of Mizuho Futures, said: "WTI crude oil futures fell to a negative value, which is a historic day. This shows that there is no storage space for crude oil, which is basically washed away by water, and crude oil is worthless. The current situation is that oil pipelines and inventories are full, but strangely, EIA data does not show that the current crude oil inventories have reached the maximum energy storage. The reason for the plunge is that traders holding long contracts in May are eager to close their positions. "