本周一，美国原油期货—西得克萨斯中间基原油(WTI)价格史无前例地跌至负值，这意味着石油贸易史上首次出现卖方必须向买方支付购买原油期货费用的情况。
The price of US oil has turned negative for the first time in history.
美国原油期货价格史无前例地跌至负值。
That means oil producers are paying buyers to take the commodity off their hands over fears that storage capacity could run out in May.
这意味着，由于担心5月份原油存储能力可能耗尽，石油生产商正在付钱给买家以抛出手中的存货。
Demand for oil has all but dried up as lockdowns across the world have kept people inside.
由于全球各地都在采取封锁措施，让人们居家不外出，石油需求几乎已经枯竭。
As a result, oil firms have resorted to renting tankers to store the surplus supply and that has forced the price of US oil into negative territory.
因此，石油公司不得不通过租用油轮来储存过剩的供应量，这迫使美国原油期货价格跌至负值。
Because of oversupply, storage tanks for WTI are becoming so full it is difficult to find space. The US Energy Information Administration said last week that storage at Cushing, Oklahoma, the heart of the US pipeline network, was about 72% full as of April 10.
由于供应过剩，西得克萨斯中间基原油的储罐即将被填满。美国能源信息署上周表示，截至4月10日，位于俄克拉何马州库欣的美国石油管网核心存储基地存储空间已占用大约72%。
The price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the benchmark for US oil, fell as low as minus $37.63 a barrel.
美国原油期货的基准油—西得克萨斯中间基原油(WTI))价格一度跌至每桶负37.63美元(约合人民币负266.12元)。
That’s the lowest level since NYMEX opened oil futures trading in 1983.
这是自1983年纽约商品交易所开始石油期货交易以来的最低水平。
“This is off-the-charts wacky,” said Stewart Glickman, an energy equity analyst at CFRA Research. “The demand shock was so massive that it’s overwhelmed anything that people could have expected.”
CFRA Research的能源资产分析师斯图尔特•格利克曼说：“这简直是跌破纪录了。需求冲击如此之大，远超人们的预期。”
off the charts：打破旧记录
The severe drop on Monday was driven in part by a technicality of the global oil market. Oil is traded on its future price and May futures contracts are due to expire on Tuesday. Traders were keen to offload those holdings to avoid having to take delivery of the oil and incur storage costs.
本周一(4月20日)的原油期货价格大幅下跌在一定程度上是由全球石油市场的技术性因素造成的。石油以期货价格交易，5月份的期货合约将于本周二到期。交易员们急于抛出这些合约，以避免不得不接受石油的交割，并产生储存成本。
June prices for WTI were also down, but trading at above $20 per barrel. Meanwhile, Brent Crude – the benchmark used by Europe and the rest of the world, was also weaker, down 8.9% at less than $26 a barrel.
西得克萨斯中间基原油6月份的期货价格也有所下降，但仍维持在每桶20美元以上。与此同时，欧洲和世界其他地区使用的基准油布伦特原油期货价格也在走弱，下跌8.9%，至每桶不到26美元。
