The oil prices came under significantly pressure at the beginning of May. On May 5, Brent slipped to $ 58.50 per barrel. This approached the 4½-year low again a month earlier. The same was for the WTI oil price, which fell to $ 55.30. In the course of the strongly sunken oil prices, the gas oil price also slipped below the $ 600 mark. At the same time, the backwardation, i.e. lower prices for edmin contracts with later dating, continues to flatten off at the front of the crude oil tendrils. The time from which the schedule is a contango structure, i.e. increase again, shifted forward. At Brent on May 5, there were only the first four editing controls in backwardation, at WTI for the first five months. Since the July Contract was already the nearest schedule at Brent, on the other hand, the Juni contract at WTI, the October contract was the turning point in both cases. It only seemed to be a matter of time before the schedule is completely in Contango, which can be interpreted as an increasing expectation of an oversupply on the oil market.
The trigger for the decline in price and the changes in the schedule was the decision of eight Opec+countries on May 3, the oil production in June again significantly increased by 411,000 barrels per day. As in May, production increases are carried out in one fell swoop over a period of three months. However, this was no longer a big surprise, since there were already corresponding rumors in advance, which put the oil prices under pressure in the days before the actual decision. The fact that the oil prices continued to slip afterwards should be related to the increasing concern about an even larger oversupply on the oil market.