WTI Crude Futures for June Delivery Fall Below $7 per Barrel, Brent Crude Below $18 per Barrel

On 20 April, the price of WTI crude futures for May delivery dropped to negative values for the first time in history, ending trade at minus $37.63 per barrel. The collapse was triggered by weak oil demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic and near-full oil storage facilities in the United States.

The price of WTI crude oil for June delivery has dropped below $7 per barrel due to weak demand amid continued restrictive measures aimed at containing the COVID-19 pandemic.

As of 18:08 GMT, June futures for WTI crude were trading down 51.1 percent at $9.99 per barrel, having earlier fallen to $6.55 per barrel.

June futures for Brent crude oil plunged by 26.95 percent to $18.68 per barrel, after having dropped to $17.52 per barrel, the lowest since December 2001.

At the same time, the price of May futures for WTI oil rebounded to $7.38 per barrel. Tuesday is the last day of trading in May WTI futures.

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis continues to grow as the number of people infected with it increases from day to day. To date, the number of people who have been infected worldwide is almost 2.5 million and more than 171,000 have succumbed to the deadly virus or related health complications, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Centre.