Why The World Is Still Pumping So Much Oil Even As Demand Drops Away

NPR • April 22, 2020

With the global economy in a pandemic-induced coma, the world just doesn't need a lot of oil. But oil is still flowing out of wells, and with nowhere else to go, it's filling up the world's storage tanks. The oversupply is so intense that this week U.S. oil prices briefly went negative. But why is that oil still flowing, anyway? Why don't producers turn off the spigot when demand falls? The short answer is that production is decreasing — just not fast enough.