After the worst quarter for oil prices in history, some oil producers have begun to include protection in their contracts to avoid being forced to pay buyers for the oil they pump if prices slide below $0 a barrel. Crude prices in key physical markets – including the United States, Canada, Mexico and Europe – have fallen through $10 a barrel, far below comparable futures prices, as demand slumps and storage fills. Those discounts could widen even further, making it possible that outright physical prices could fall below $0 per barrel. Such occurrences are rare, though it has happened in other markets, such as West Texas natural gas markets, where spot prices dropped into negative territory in early March, forcing producers to pay to have others take their gas. Oil prices have been hammered by the collapse in demand after the coronavirus outbreak and the […]