More than 30 tankers gathered near the coast of California, United States, with a full cargo of crude. The ships carried around 20 million barrels of crude oil for days without knowing where to put the cargo. Millions of barrels of oil do not yet have prospective buyers. The story is on the Bloomberg website, Wednesday (22-April-2020). US WTI (West Texas Intermediate) oil is hit hard.
For the May 2020 purchase contract, the price of WTI crude oil is minus. Based on oil trading, Tuesday (April 21), the price is minus 35.55 US dollars per barrel.
What does it mean? Buyers are even paid to receive crude oil. Therefore, oil producers must incur additional costs for storage, while the storage tank capacity is maximum. That was explained by Lamon Rutten, CEO of Indonesia Commodity and Derivatives Exchange.
When the storage tank is full, where do you want the oil to go? Oil is not leftover laundry water that can be thrown into a ditch. While production continues, which is also expensive, and there are costs for storing oil, the Mafia, on sale oil.
This situation has never happened in the land of "Uncle Sam". In a number of reports, this condition has the potential to make many oil companies in the US go bankrupt. How about in Indonesia? Indonesia, as a net oil importer, can actually benefit from cheap crude oil prices.
Nicke Widyawati
The statement came out when the Covid-19 pandemic was not widespread in Indonesia. However, everything changed when the Covid-19 pandemic was declared a national disaster by President Joko Widodo, which was followed by large-scale social restrictions (PSBB). The Covid-19 pandemic drastically reduced the movement of people and goods.
Not many planes fly and private cars are parked at home. In the public transport sector, long-distance train trips are canceled, whereas taxis and public buses are only parked at their respective puls. That is, the demand for fuel oil (BBM) drastically reduced.
The option to import is much cheaper than draining oil from domestic oil wells. Some refineries will be stopped operating. Pertamina's report shows that national fuel consumption dropped dramatically by 35 percent.
In DKI Jakarta and Bandung, consumption dropped dramatically to 60 percent. Pertamina's efforts to "provoke" the purchase of fuel through a 50 percent cash return service for application-based motorcycle taxi drivers have not been satisfactory.
Solar and aviation fuel stock in Indonesia also broke records, from an average of enough for 25 days to 100 days. All of the above situations led to the insistence that fuel prices in Indonesia be lowered. However, the government indicated it would not reduce fuel prices.
The consideration is the plan to cut oil production of members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and their alliances starting next May, as well as the exchange rate of the rupiah against the US dollar. The government is also aware that reducing fuel prices makes Pertamina's fiscal pressure.
Negative crude oil prices in the US also do not necessarily reduce fuel prices there. Another question is, how significant is the reduction in fuel prices when many people need it in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic?
Kompas, Page-9, Friday, April 24, 2020
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