Oil prices on track to drop to lowest point in more than 20 years

Oil was trading at about $11 per barrel on Monday, with prices on track to hit the lowest level seen in more than 20 years.

That price is a nearly 50 percent decline from the market close Friday, after prices periodically dipped to another new low through the course of the day.

The low prices for West Texas Intermediate oil comes as the U.S. is running out of storage space for fuel.

Demand for oil has fallen 30 percent as people quarantine due to the coronavirus, leaving a glut of fuel on the market.

The sharp decline in prices comes both as companies begin to slow their production and as more storage space will become available soon.

U.S. production is expected to drop by a little less than 5 percent for the rest of the year, according to market analysis by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Meanwhile, the Department of Energy is preparing to rent 23 million barrels of space within its Strategic Petroleum Reserve to oil companies — space they would pay for in oil. 

The Trump administration has also floated the idea of paying oil companies leaving their product in the ground — a way of ensuring U.S. production falls after President Trump committed to limit production as part of a deal with other oil-producing countries.