The US oil storage tanks are filling up again amid the rising number of coronavirus cases and approaching levels reached following April’s oil price crash, according to Bloomberg.
Stockpiles at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures, stood at 61.6 million barrels as of Nov. 13, or about 81% of capacity versus 65.43 million barrels seen in May, the recently released US government data showed.
The latest uptick in the inventories could be attributed to sluggish demand conditions and refineries undergoing seasonal maintenance. The second wave of the coronavirus pandemic is accelerating across the US and threatening to derail the economic recovery.
The WTI crude is currently trading at $41.83 per barrel. The OPEC+, a group of major producers led by Russia and Saudi Arabia, is expected to delay the planned output hike of January 2021 by three to six months to help the market cope up with the resurgence of coronavirus.