My (school) friend who knows about this stuff explained how the price of oil could possibly be ‘negative’. Oil traders buy and sell futures, which are contracts to buy or sell actual tanker ship-fulls of oil. The plan is to buy cheap and sell for more before the ship docks or, in current circumstances sell for more, buy back more cheaply, then sell again. But if you manage to do this and no-one wants it when it arrives somewhere and there’s nowhere to put it, you’ll have to actually pay someone to take it off your hands. And that’s the funny old (financial) world we’re living in.
“Oil markets prepare for lofty prices and restrained supply”
Plus ça change and tout ça. Many thought a positive by-product of Covid might be the fuller-throttle demise of fossil fuels. Alas no, looks like supply and demand alone won’t make all of us and our friends electric. Even though Trump won’t be reopening the coal mines...
