Oil Didn’t “Crater” Today. It’s Been Cratering for Two Months.

Did the price of oil “crater” today? You decide! Here’s the price of Brent crude, which provides a look at an international benchmark that’s not affected by storage issues in Cushing, Oklahoma. As you can see, it’s been dropping steadily all year, and the decline accelerated at the end of February when COVID-19 started to hit the economy. Today it fell 15 percent, which is a pretty healthy drop. On the other hand, today’s decline just put it back on the approximate trendline it’s been following for the past two months.

So it’s not so much that oil cratered today, it’s that oil has been plummeting by about 1 percent per day ever since February 20. The question is: how long will it keep doing this?

They want to control the story. Our readers don’t let them.

Powerful forces are working to control the narrative, rewrite history, and keep you in the dark. That’s why the Mother Jones newsroom is fiercely independent, not backed by billionaires or bending to political whims.

But we can’t do this work without you.

Our nonprofit newsroom is funded by our readers. Each donation helps strengthen our work, so we can continue to investigate and publish, no matter what an authoritarian-minded administration wants the media to say.

Stand with us. Make a gift today.

They want to control the story. Our readers don’t let them.

Powerful forces are working to control the narrative, rewrite history, and keep you in the dark. That’s why the Mother Jones newsroom is fiercely independent, not backed by billionaires or bending to political whims.

But we can’t do this work without you.

Our nonprofit newsroom is funded by our readers. Each donation helps strengthen our work, so we can continue to investigate and publish, no matter what an authoritarian-minded administration wants the media to say.

Stand with us. Make a gift today.

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate