Oil Now Worth Less Than Barrels It’s Stored In

Remember Trump's scheme to increase the price of oil and the corresponding price of gas for Americans by entering into a pricing cartel with Saudi Arabia and Russia?

Saudi Arabia, Russia, Mexico and a handful (not all) American companies agreed to cut output in an attempt to prop up oil prices, but we can now say with some certainty that Trump's scheme was a failure.

The price of oil dropped to about $10.34 per barrel this morning, the lowest price since 1986.

Oil plunged to the lowest level since 1986 as a deadly pandemic ravaging global economies threatens to erase an entire decade of demand growth, slashing thousands of jobs and wiping out hundreds of billions of dollars from company valuations. [...]

“There is little to prevent the physical market from the further acute downside path over the near term,” said Michael Tran, managing director of global energy strategy at RBC Capital Markets. “Refiners are rejecting barrels at a historic pace and with U.S. storage levels sprinting to the brim, market forces will inflict further pain until either we hit rock bottom, or COVID clears, whichever comes first, but it looks like the former.”

I was about 2-years-old the last time oil was this cheap so you may want to consider filling up your own gas tank later today if you're running low.

Trump's scheme to rig prices didn't work because there's simply no demand for oil right now, but the drop in demand is also partially Trump's fault.

Trump could not have stopped the drop in demand across the rest of the world, but we have a nearly-nationwide economic shutdown here in the United States because the Trump regime wasted the entire months of January and February and most of March doing absolutely nothing to prepare for or prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Even now at nearly the end of April, the Trump regime is arguably doing nothing.

Our economic pain and the corresponding drop in oil prices are both a result of Trump's unparalleled incompetence.

Americans industries ought to add 2 and 2 together and realize that electing a competent Democrat to office is worth far more than chipping away at a handful of regulations. Electing or reelecting someone like Trump is asking for what's happening right now.

Is the ability to pump more mercury into the atmosphere worth more to you than simply surviving at all?

Between the time I began writing this post and the time I finished it, the price of oil actually dropped below $10 per barrel.

Update.. the price of oil is currently less than $1 per barrel after 2 o'clock, the lowest level ever recorded

Update 2... the price of oil is now less than zero and is trading in negative territory

Update 3... oil futures closed at negative -$37.63, meaning oil companies paying distributors just to take it off their hands