據世界石油4月18日報道，美國正在考慮通過政府出資，使美國石油生產商將原油儲存起來，以緩解市場供過于求的局面。美國能源部已經起草了一項計劃,旨在通過有效地將未開采的原油作為政府緊急儲備的一部分，石油儲量高達3.65億桶。

受此消息影響，5月份西德克薩斯中質原油期貨價格上漲約20美分，至每桶20.42美元。周三早些時候，原油期貨價格18年來首次跌破20美元/桶。

聯邦法律已經授權能源部留出多達10億桶石油用于緊急情況，但沒有規定這些原油的去向。這為在政府現有儲量之外儲存原油創造了一個合法的條件，甚至在一開始就阻止了石油的開采。在這種情況下，政府會購買封存在地下的石油，要求生產商推遲開采或交付。

這個將原油存儲在開采地的計劃將需要國會撥款數十億美元，政府出價30億美元購買戰略儲備石油，但競標未達成。這樣的協議可能是前所未有的，反映出政府正努力幫助國內鉆探企業擺脫石油產量激增和需求銳減的困境。

包括伍德麥肯茲和IHS Markit專家在內的分析人士預計，儲油設施將在夏季前被填滿，甚至可能更早。一旦發生這種情況，沒有地方存放原油的石油生產商將被迫停產，并解雇工人。

一些公司已經在閑置鉆井平臺，并將過剩的供應儲存在鐵路車廂里，而管道運營商則將原油輸送到未被充分利用的儲存地點。

鄒勤 摘譯自 世界石油

原文如下：

U.S. debates paying its producers to leave oil untapped during glut

The administration is considering paying U.S. oil producers to leave crude in the ground to help alleviate a glut that has caused prices to plummet and pushed some drillers into bankruptcy.

The Energy Department has drafted a plan to compensate companies for sitting on as much as 365 million barrels worth of oil reserves by effectively making that untapped crude part of the U.S. government’s emergency stockpile, said senior administration officials, who asked not to be identified describing deliberations prior to a decision and announcement.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for May rose about 20 cents to $20.42 a barrel on the news. Earlier Wednesday, crude futures settled below $20 a barrel for the first time in 18 years.

Federal law already gives the Energy Department authority to set aside as much as 1 billion barrels of oil for emergencies -- without dictating where they should go. That creates a legal opening for storing crude outside the government’s existing reserve and even blocking its extraction in the first place. In this case, the government would essentially buy the oil locked underground but ask producers to hold off on extracting or delivering it.

The keep-it-in-the-ground plan would require billions of dollars in appropriations from Congress -- and the administration just recently lost a bid in Congress to spend $3 billion buying oil for the government’s strategic reserve. A deal like this could be unprecedented and reflects a Trump administration push to help domestic drillers battered by a surge of oil production and a collapse of demand tied to the coronavirus.

Analysts, including experts at Wood Mackenzie and IHS Markit, expect storage tanks to fill by summer, if not sooner. Whenever that happens, oil producers with no place to put their crude would be forced to halt production and lay off workers.

Some are already idling drilling rigs and stowing excess supplies in rail cars, while pipeline operators are reversing flows to transport crude to underused storage sites.