Day Two of U.S. Oil Horror; June Takes a Hit as Texas Refuses Cuts

By Barani Krishnan

Investing.com - With the speculative crowd moving out of U.S. crude’s expiring spot month, the battered May contract rose from the depths of negative pricing to settle up on Tuesday. 

But bears turned their attention instead to the successive front-month, June, mauling it on news that the state of Texas won’t cut output yet despite immense supply glut and scarce storage for oil.

The Railroad Commission of Texas, which oversees oil and gas companies, delayed a vote on mandated production cuts demanded by midsized shale oil drillers such as Parsley Energy (NYSE:PE) and Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD) but opposed by big energy firms such as ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM), Chevron (NYSE:CVX) and Marathon Oil (NYSE:MRO). The commission wanted input from the state's attorney general

Adding to the ructions in oil was the halted trading of the United States Oil Fund (NYSE:USO), a popular exchange-traded security known for its ‘USO’ ticker which is supposed to track the price of oil. Used mostly by retail investors, the USO plunged nearly 40% as the managers of the fund struggled to change its structure to stave off a collapse.

Oil bears, riding on the fever-pitch negative sentiment in crude since Monday’s historic subzero prices, pounded the West Texas Intermediate’s June contract, forcing it to settle down 43%, or $8.86, at $11.57 per barrel.

WTI May, which plunged $55.90 to settle at minus $37.63 on Monday, rose from those depths to settle at $10.01 and go off the board.

Brent, the London-traded global benchmark for crude, meanwhile, lost 24%, or $6.24, to finish at $19.33, as players tried to ensure to keep its differential to June WTI within the typical $10 band. 

Analysts said events in oil over the past 24 hours have made pricing energy risk virtually impossible.

“Allowing negative prices means no downside limits, and that makes it now more difficult to assess risk exposure from flat price to cracks and spreads,” said Olivier Jakob, founder of the PetroMatrix oil risk consultancy in Zug, Switzerland. “Technical targets are also hard to set in this environment.”

President Donald Trump, seemingly aware of market rumblings predicting the death of the U.S. shale industry — which had made America the world’s top crude producer — vowed not to let it die.

“We will never let the great U.S. Oil & Gas Industry down,” Trump tweeted. “I have instructed the Secretary of Energy and Secretary of the Treasury to formulate a plan which will make funds available so that these very important companies and jobs will be secured long into the future!”

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