Oil prices in America plummeted to a historic new low today amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The price of a barrel of crude oil slumped to less than $1 (80p) – making it cheaper than a packet of sweets.

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Oil producers are now paying buyers to take it off their hands over fears storage capacity could run out in May.

Due to quarantine orders in almost every state, demand for oil had dried up as Americans are no longer using their cars.

The death toll in the US has soared above 41,000.

Oil firms are now renting tankers to store the surplus supply – which is what has driven the price of US oil in the negative.

The price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate, which is the benchmark for US oil, started trading at a negative price today for first time in history, falling as low as $37.63 (£30.27) a barrel.

The devastating drop today was partly driven by a technicality of the global oil market.

Oil is traded on its future price and the contracts for May are due to expire tomorrow.

Traders wanted to offload those holding so they wouldn’t accumulate storage costs by having to take in the delivery.

This is a rapid descent from the $60 (£48.26) a barrel that oil was priced at a few months ago.

June future prices for WTI were also down today, but trading at above $20 (£16.09) per barrel.

The US collapse will be a blow to US President Donald Trump, who has gone to great lengths to protect the oil sector, including backing moves by Opec and Russia to cut production and pledging support for the industry.

Meanwhile, Brent Crude, which is the European benchmark, was also down to less than $26 (£20.91) a barrel.

Global oil prices have fallen as coronavirus continues to rampage across the world – with many countries under lockdown and restrictions of movement measures.

More than 2.4million people have been infected globally and the current death toll is about 168,000.