The Crude Report: Revisiting negative oil prices with the CFTC

It has been nearly one year since 20 April 2020, a turbulent day for oil markets when WTI crude prices fell to a settlement price of negative $37.63/bl, which left some producers in the unusual position of paying someone to take their oil. Limited storage in Cushing, Oklahoma, and travel restrictions from Covid-19 both contributed to the volatile market dynamics that day, but others have sought a more robust "root cause" analysis to determine why oil prices fell so fast yet recovered so quickly the next day. 

In this episode of The Crude Report, Commodity Futures Trading Commission member Dan Berkovitz offers his perspective on the dip into negative oil prices, the need to analyze the significant increase in "trading at settlement" contracts on 20 April, and his push for a more thorough review by regulators of market activity that day. 

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