Of all the wild,unprecedented swings in financial markets since the coronavirus pandemic broke out,none has been more jaw-dropping than Monday's collapse in a key segment of U.S.oil trading.
自冠狀病毒爆發以來，金融市場出現了前所未有的劇烈波動，但週一美國石油交易的一個關鍵領域出現的崩盤是最令人瞠目結舌的。
The price on the futures contract for West Texas crude that is due to expire Tuesday fell into negative territory--minus$37.63 a barrel.The reason:with the pandemic bringing the economy to a standstill,there is so much unused oil sloshing around that American energy companies have run out of room to store it.And if there's no place to put the oil,no one wants a crude contract that is about to come due.
將於週二到期的西德克薩斯原油期貨合約價格跌至負值區間——每桶下跌37.63美元。原因在於:隨著全球流行病使經濟陷入停滯，有太多未使用的石油到處流動，以至於美國能源公司已經沒有存儲空間了。如果沒有地方儲存石油，沒有人希望原油合約到期。
Underscoring just how acute the concern is over the lack of immediate storage space,the price on the futures contract due a month later settled at$20.43 per barrel.That gap between the two contracts is by far the biggest ever.
一個月後到期的原油期貨合約價格達到每桶20.43美元，這突顯出人們對於缺乏立即儲存空間的擔憂有多麼嚴重。這兩份合同之間的差距是迄今為止最大的。
"The May crude oil contract is going out not with a whimper,but a primal scream,"said Daniel Yergin,a Pulitzer Prize-winning oil historian and vice chairman of IHS Markit Ltd.
普利策獎獲得者、IHS Markit ltd.副董事長丹尼爾·耶金(Daniel Yergin)說，"5月份的原油合約不是一聲嗚咽，而是一聲原始的吶喊。"。
"There is little to prevent the physical market from the further acute downside path over the near term,"said Michael Tran,managing director of global energy strategy at RBC Capital Markets."Refiners are rejecting barrels at a historic pace and with U.S.storage levels sprinting to the brim,market forces will inflict further pain until either we hit rock bottom,or COVID clears,whichever comes first,but it looks like the former."
加拿大皇家銀行資本市場(RBC Capital Markets)全球能源策略董事總經理邁克爾•特蘭(Michael Tran)表示:"短期內，幾乎沒有什麼能阻止現貨市場進一步急劇下行。"。"煉油廠正以歷史性的速度拒絶提供原油，而且隨著美國的原油儲備水平急劇下降，市場力量將造成進一步的痛苦，直到我們或者觸底，或者冠狀病毒清理完畢，不管哪個先清理，但看起來都像是前者。"
Since the start of the year,oil prices have plunged after the compounding impacts of the coronavirus and a breakdown in the original OPEC+agreement.With no end in sight,and producers around the world continuing to pump,that's causing a fire-sale among traders who don't have access to storage.
自今年年初以來，由於冠狀病毒的複雜影響和歐佩克+原始協議的破裂，石油價格暴跌。在看不到盡頭的情況下，世界各地的生產商繼續大量生產，這導致了那些無法進入倉庫的交易商的大甩賣。
The extreme move showed just how oversupplied the U.S.oil market has become with industrial and economic activity grinding to a halt as governments around the globe extend shutdowns due to the swift spread of the coronavirus.An unprecedented output deal by OPEC and allied members a week ago to curb supply is proving too little too late in the face a one-third collapse in global demand.
這一極端舉動表明，美國石油市場供過於求，工業和經濟活動陷入停滯，而全球各國政府由於冠狀病毒的迅速蔓延而延長了停產期。一週前，歐佩克及其成員國達成了一項前所未有的產量協議，以控制石油供應，但在全球石油需求驟降三分之一的情況下，這項協議實在太少、太遲。
There are signs of weakness everywhere.Even before Monday's plunge,buyers in Texas were offering as little as$2 a barrel last week for some oil streams.In Asia,bankers are increasingly reluctant to give commodity traders the credit to survive as lenders grow ever more fearful about the risk of a catastrophic default.
到處都有軟弱的跡象。甚至在週一油價暴跌之前，德克薩斯州的買家上週對某些原油的出價就低至每桶2美元。在亞洲，銀行家越來越不願意給予大宗商品交易員信貸以求生存，因為貸款機構越來越擔心發生災難性違約的風險。
In New York,West Texas Intermediate for May delivery dropped as low as negative$40.32 a barrel.It's far below the lowest level previous seen in continuation monthly data charts since 1946,just after World War II,according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St.Louis.Brent declined 8.9%to$25.57 a barrel.
在紐約，5月交割的西德克薩斯中間基原油石油期貨價格跌至每桶負40.32美元。根據聖路易斯聯邦儲備銀行的數據，這遠遠低於自1946年以來的最低水平。布倫特原油下跌8.9%，至每桶25.57美元。
Crude stockpiles at Cushing--America's key storage hub and delivery point of the West Texas Intermediate contract--have jumped 48%to almost 55 million barrels since the end of February.The hub had working storage capacity of 76 million as of Sept.30,according to the Energy Information Administration.
自2月底以來，庫欣原油庫存已經增長了48%，達到5500萬桶，庫欣是美國關鍵的儲油中心，也是西德克薩斯中間基原油石油合同的交付地。根據能源信息管理局的數據，截至9月30日，該中心的工作存儲容量為7600萬。
Fund Inflow
資金流入
Despite the weakness in headline prices,retail investors are continuing to plow money back into oil futures.The U.S.Oil Fund ETF saw a record$552 million come in on Friday,taking total inflows last week to$1.6 billion.
儘管總體價格疲軟，但散戶投資者仍繼續將資金投入石油期貨。美國石油基金 ETF 上週五錄得創紀錄的5.52億美元資金流入，使上週資金流入總額達到16億美元。
The price collapse is reverberating across the oil industry.Crude explorers shut down 13%of the American drilling fleet last week.While production cuts in the country are gaining pace,it isn't happening quickly enough to avoid storage filling to maximum levels,said Paul Horsnell,head of commodities at Standard Chartered.
油價暴跌正在整個石油行業引起反響。上週，原油勘探公司關閉了美國13%的鑽井船隊。儘管美國的減產步伐正在加快，但這並沒有發生得足夠快，無法避免最大限度地滿足庫存需求，渣打銀行集團大宗商品部主管 Paul Horsnell 說。
"The background psychology right now is just massively bearish,"Michael Lynch,president of Strategic Energy&Economic Research Inc said in a phone interview."People are concerned that we are going to see so much build up of inventory that it's going to be very difficult to fix in the near term and there is going to be a lot distressed cargoes on the market.People are trying to get rid of the oil and there are no buyers."
戰略能源與經濟研究公司總裁邁克爾·林奇在電話採訪中說："目前的背景心理是非常悲觀的。"。"人們擔心，我們將看到大量庫存積壓，短期內很難修復，市場上將有大量受困貨物。人們正試圖擺脫石油，但沒有買家。"
—With assistance by Javier Blas,and Elizabeth Low
ー由哈維爾·布拉斯和伊麗莎白·洛協助
來源：https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-19/oil-drops-to-18-year-low-on-global-demand-crunch-storage-woes
轉貼自：https://www.pfcchina.org/xinwen/38110.html
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