Oil Price Crash and the Fossil Fuel Endgame

On April 25th, the West Texas Intermediate price for oil futures delivered in May collapsed to -37 to -40 dollars a barrel at one point. It has never happened that oil prices fell into negative territory. While the oil crisis has seemingly stabilized, tons of questions remain. Prof. Jason Bordoff, the founding Director of Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy, joins Tiger and Owen for a discussion on the state of oil markets, the future political struggles between oil-producing nations, whether we're at all near the "endgame" stage for fossil fuel, and the broader energy transition in a post-Covid world.

To give a more elaborate explanation of the oil price crash – The first half of 2020 has seen the traditional energy markets in an unprecedented phase of unrest. As COVID-19 brought global movement to a halt and as oil producing countries scrambled to balance the market through cuts of their own, cracks in OPEC+ –– the most powerful oil cartel today –– were clearly visible. The political aftermath of the OPEC+ fallout saw countries increase their production, leading to both an increase in oil supply and a massive drop in demand. With nowhere to put this oil, oil futures went below zero for the first time ever as places to store this unused supply quickly filled up.

Jason Bordoff is the founding Director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs. He joined the Columbia faculty after serving until January 2013 as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Energy and Climate Change on the Staff of the National Security Council, and, prior to that, holding senior policy positions on the White House's National Economic Council and Council on Environmental Quality. He also hosts his own podcast “Columbia Energy Exchange” that features in-depth conversations with the world’s top energy and climate leaders.

Jason Bordoff