U.S. oil plunges, Brent below $20 a barrel on storage, economic woes

U.S. oil plunges, Brent below $20 a barrel on storage, economic woes

Oil futures marked their third straight week of losses last week, with Brent ending 24% down and WTI off about 7%.. Prices can't do anything else but decline when producers won't have anywhere to store oil soon," Rystad Energy head of oil markets Bjornar Tonhaugen said.. "The shift of open interest away from June will have negative consequences for the liquidity of the contract, potentially leading to greater volatility in its price.". U.S. crude inventories rose to 518.6 million barrels in the week to April 17, near the record 535 million barrels set in 2017.. "The current oil balance is simply awful, and no improvement is anticipated until after June due to the massive fall in global oil demand," said oil broker PVM's Tamas Varga..