There are signs that these stunningly low prices are here to stay as tanks across the globe fill up. Royal Vopak NV, the world’s biggest independent storage company, said almost all of its space is sold.
Crude stockpiles at Cushing -- America’s key storage hub and delivery point of the WTI contract -- have jumped 48% to almost 55 million barrels since the end of February. U.S. nationwide inventories are estimated to have increased another 14 million barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg survey.
The Dated Brent benchmark, a global reference for nearly two thirds of the world’s physical flows, plunged to $13.24 a barrel on Tuesday, its lowest since 1999, according to price reporting agency S&P Global Platts. That means that key European and African crude streams, including Urals from Russia and Bonny Light from Nigeria, would sell now under $10 a barrel, as they trade at a discount to the Dated Brent benchmark.
--With assistance from Alex Longley.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.