Too Much Oil:How A Barrel Came To Be Worth Less Than Nothing（1）
石油过剩：一桶油是如何变得一文不值的（1）
油价出现负值
Something bizarre happened in the oil markets on Monday: Prices fell so much that some traders paid buyers to take oil off their hands.
星期一（2020年4月20日），石油市场发生了一件极奇诡异的事件：石油价格*，一些交易员为了卖出他们的石油，甚至给买家付钱。
The price of the main U.S. oil benchmark fell more than $50 a barrel to end the day about $30 below zero, the first time oil prices have ever turned negative. Such an eye-popping slide is the result of a quirk in the oil market, but it underscores the industry's disarray as the coronavirus pandemic decimates the world economy.
主要美国石油基准价格下跌超过50美元一桶，到收市，已经成了-30美元，这是史上首次石油价格跌至负值。如此跌破眼球是由于石油市场的怪异变化所造成的，不过也凸显出新冠病毒大流行在重创世界经济的同时，也对石油工业造成了混乱。
Demand for oil is collapsing, and despite a deal by Saudi Arabia, Russia and other nations to cut production, the world is running out of places to put all the oil the industry keeps pumping out - about 100 million barrels a day. At the start of the year, oil sold for over $60 a barrel but by Friday it hit about $20.
对石油的需求正在崩溃，尽管拉特阿拉伯，俄罗斯和其他国家达成协议削减产量，但是世界仍然在源源不断出产石油——一天1亿桶。今年年初，油价超过了60美元一桶，而在上周五已经跌到了20美元。
Prices went negative - meaning that anyone trying to sell a barrel would have to pay a buyer $30 - in part because of the way oil is traded. Futures contracts that require buyers to take possession of oil in May are expiring on Tuesday, and nobody wanted the oil because there was no place to store it. Contracts for June delivery were still trading for about $22 a barrel, down 16 percent for the day.
价格走向负值——意味着每卖一桶石油必须付给买家30美元——部分原因在石油的交易方式。期货交易合同要求买家们将在5月交割的石油在本周二就到期了，而没有人想要这些石油，因为已经没有地方存储这些石油了。六月交割合同也到了22美元一桶，当日下跌16%。
"If you are a producer, your market has disappeared and if you don't have access to storage you are out of luck," said Aaron Brady, vice president forenergy oil market services at IHS Markit, a research and consulting firm. "The system is seizing up."
“如果你是一个供货商，你的市场已经消失，如果没有地方储存，那你就太不幸了”，研究咨询机构埃信华迈公司负责能源石油市场服务业务的副总裁阿伦布雷迪说，“系统正在失灵。”
