2020 Oil Price Crash

Overview

2020 Oil Price Crash refers to a significant drop in oil prices to below zero dollars for the first time in history. The crash was in part due to the global COVID-19 pandemic and despite US President Donald Trump announcing he had helped out with a deal that would mend the oil trade war between Russia and OPEC.

Background

On April 20th, 2020, oil prices saw a 306% decrease to a price of around $-30 dollars, down from approximately 20 dollars last month in March. This marks the first time ever in history that oil prices have dropped this low.^[5] That day CNBC shared a chart illustrating the drop to Twitter^[1] (shown below).

Developments

On April 20th, 2020, many Twitter users compared the price of a barrel of crude oil to other things. Twitter user @imchained2katy^[3] tweeted, "Netflix subscription is nearly 26 times more expensive than a barrel of oil #OilPrice" (shown below, left). The tweet gained over 1,700 likes and 770 retweets in a day. That same day, Redditor SocietysJoker posted a scene from Joker referencing negative oil prices to r/moviescirclejerk^[2] (shown below, right). The post received 1,700 points (100% upvoted) in a day.

The next day, Twitter users continued to discuss the price of oil and considered buying oil as an investment. Twitter user @Atheist_Krishna^[4] tweeted, "Ordered crude oil worth Rs 100 as future investment. #OilCrash" and accumulated over 5,400 likes and 500 retweets in a day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References