In last week’s article we warned that the next few weeks and months could be very ugly for crude prices due to fundamental supply and demand factors. Even so, our jaws were on the floor at seeing Monday’s WTI May contract trade at -$37/barrel. As most of our readers are aware, negative prices for the WTI contract for May delivery were largely due to technical factors in physical markets. Specifically, future traders got stuck long the May contract without ability to take physical delivery and had to unload at fire sale prices. While we likely will not see a repeat of Monday’s bloodbath, prices will likely remain under immense pressure due to significant oversupply. The latest EIA data indicates domestic crude production is declining in response to market forces, potentially averting future negative prices. Declining crude production, coupled with anecdotal evidence, suggests that well shut-ins are gathering pace.