Oil Prices Slide so Far Some Crude Is Now Worth Literally Less than NothingBy Claire Bernish North Dakota Sour, a high-sulfur crude thats more expensive to refine than other varieties, has now been listed at -$0.50 per barrel down from $13.50 per barrel a year ago and $47.60 per barrel in 2014, Bloombergreported. Telling producers that they have to pay you to take away their oil certainly gives the producers a whole bunch of incentive to shut their wells, said Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, LLC, about the current crude surfeit, according to Bloomberg. The news outlet also cited executive vice president of Turner Mason Co., John Auers, as explaining that this particular crude only represents a small portion of North Dakotas production, with15,000 barrels a day coming out of the ground. While North Dakota Sour is a fraction of the market, oil prices in general have been sliding substantially. Brent and West Texas International (WTI), which serve as benchmarks for global oil pricing, are both solidly under $30 per barrel, with some market analysts who cite the coming return of Iran and its potential influx of 500,000 barrels per day to the market predicting a possible return to the $25 mark. Just 18 months ago, Brent crudehovered around $115. U.S. producers have thus far refused to ramp down output from 9 million barrels a day, despite demand described in a note from the U.K.s Barclays Bank as spectacularly weak. In fact, oversupply looks to be an ongoing issue for at least two years, according to fund manager with T. Rowe Price, Shawn Driscoll, whom MarketWatchs Howard Gold cites for his uncannily accurate oil price predictions. Even without accounting for Irans coming production, Driscoll explained, our model is saying were still oversupplied a million barrels a day in 16. Canadian producers are feeling the pain, as well, with hotly disputed tar sands bitumen the substance at the heart of the Keystone XL Pipeline controversy having slumped from as high as $80 less than two years ago to just $8.35 last week, said Bloomberg. Putting the finances aside, the dramatic price plunge has meant drastic reductions in energy sector jobs, particularly in Alberta, with an alarming correlation to an increase in the provinces suicide rate. As reported by CBC, in 2015, the chief medical examiner reported a 30% increase in the suicide rate over the previous year though that number is expected to climb even higher once statistics have been fully compiled. Meanwhile in the U.S., one group has welcomed the oil price slump with open arms: motorists. Gas stations intwo locations in Michigan dropped prices below $1 per gallon; and at the time of publication, the average gas price in the nation was an unbelievable $1.89 per gallon a price not seen here since March 2009, according toAAA. This article (Oil Prices Slide so Far Some Crude Is Now Worth Literally Less than Nothing) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under aCreative Commons license with attribution to Claire Bernish and theAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, email edits@theantimedia.org. ISIS flooding the market does not help or should that be our CIA through ISIS flooding the market. The truth is out there Liberty is soon available to desirous Americans. at least in certain locations. Beginning with the migration into NH as a result of the Free State Project. Moving will be much less expensive than originally thought. Cheap oil is a tyrants worst nightmare. Its the Saudis in some form or other. Theyre masters of the oil. America is being run on the petro dollar. What better way to then to defeat America than by glutting the dollar? If the dollar, tied to petro, plunges in value America goes bankrupt. As if America was far from bankruptcy before the glut started. Devalue oil, you devalue the dollar. Going to be Germany in the 1930s again. Money worth so little people will dump a wheelbarrow load and run off with the wheelbarrow instead. 