New York | Energy traders bailed out of the expiring May US oil futures contract in a frenzy on Monday, sending the contract to a record of -$US37.63 (-$59.27) a barrel or a fall of more than 300 per cent at 5.26am AEDT as few buyers are willing to take delivery of actual physical barrels of oil because there is no place to put the crude.

With demand down 30 per cent worldwide due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the main US storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma expected to fill up in a matter of weeks, very few want to be stuck with oil barrels that they have to take delivery on at some point during May. Major oil-producing nations have agreed to cut output and global oil companies are trimming production, but those cuts will not come quickly enough to avoid a massive clog.

"The cavalry [OPEC-plus cuts] won’t arrive in time to save this oil market. This may prove to be one of the worst deliveries in history. Nobody wants or is in need of oil right now," said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago.

The difference between the expiring May US West Texas Intermediate crude contract and the coming June contract widened to a record at nearly $US20 a barrel. That yawning gap emerged because owning the May contract when it expires on Tuesday means that buyer is obligated to take those barrels.

As a result, futures traders, who would normally be able to shift from the expiring contract to the next, are finding few buyers for the expiring May contract to take delivery of barrels. As more traders dump the May contract, it has crashed, lately trading at less than $US6 a barrel.