Oil markets have taken a beating around the globe, but nowhere has the pummeling been worse than in the United States shale patch, where the oil price crash plunged the West Texas Intermediate crude benchmark to nearly $40 below zero per barrel last month in a historic rock bottom moment. The oil price crash was the result of a severe decline in international oil demand thanks to the spread of the novel coronavirus, made infinitely worse by an ensuing oil price war between the leading OPEC+ members of Saudi Arabia and Russia. As the two petro-nations duked it out, the global oil glut ballooned to a massive oversupply and oil storage deficiency that persists today. In the wake of these blows to the global oil markets, the Permian Basin has been swept with a wave of bankruptcies and fired and furloughed workers. “The U.S. rig count has plunged by […]