WTI Negative Price and Cushing, Oklahoma, Crude Oil Storage Capacity: The Importance of 15%

Working storage capacity at Cushing, Oklahoma, is approximately 77 million barrels, which represents about 15% of the United States’ (U.S.) total working crude oil storage capacity, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Cushing storage is important to the U.S. crude oil industry because it is the delivery and pricing point for the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) light sweet crude oil futures contract, typically referred to as the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) contract.