Oil futures were headed sharply lower early Wednesday as the energy complex faced persistent pressure centered on a dearth of places to put excess oil and a glut of the commodity being pumped by major producers.
June Brent crude BRNM20,
Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery CLM20,
A glut of oil and dwindling places to store the commodity has combined to obliterate crude values, highlighted by a stunning 306% decline Monday in the May contract that placed the front-month contract at negative $ 37.63 a barrel.
Read: The oil market is running out of storage space and production cuts loom
The key U.S. storage hub was already at 70% capacity as of April 10, according to Platts Analytics expects, who estimate that Cushing stocks to have climbed by another 5 million barrels.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration will release its weekly inventory data Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time. The EIA data are expected to show crude inventories rose by 12.9 million barrels last week, according to analysts polled by S&P Global Platts.
That reading would follow a report from the American Petroleum Exporting Institute late Tuesday that showed that U.S. crude supplies rose by 13.2 million barrels for the week ended April 17.
