After a tumultuous day that saw oil futures falling into negative territory, U.S. President Donald Trump suggested the U.S. could either purchase roughly 75 million barrels of oil to add to the country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or rent that spare capacity to oil companies squeezed for storage space due to the glut in the market.
"This is a great time to buy oil. We'd get it for the right price," Trump said at a coronavirus task force news briefing on Monday night. "Nobody's ever heard of negative oil before."
"We are filling up our national petroleum reserves... You know, the strategic reserves. And we are looking to put as much as 75 million barrels into the reserves themselves," the U.S. president stressed.
Trump said he’d like Congress to approve any action. Last month, Congress left plans to buy oil for the SPR out of the $2 trillion stimulus package.
He also said "at a minimum" the government would charge for storage in the reserve.
The soon-to-expire May contract for West Texas Intermediate crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange traded, and closed, in negative territory, as MarketWatch reported.
Demand for crude has plummeted as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, and the price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia that added more crude to an already-oversupplied market.
