WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st May, 2020) US oil and gas companies will benefit from the expansion of a government lending program designed to help smaller businesses withstand the coronavirus crisis, Senator Kevin Cramer said on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, the Federal Reserve said it will reduce the loan size for US firms to $500,000 and expand the scope and eligibility of its soon-to-launch Main Street Lending Program to reach a greater number of small- and medium-sized businesses amid the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
"The expansion of the Main Street Lending Program...� is going to encompass a larger pool of borrowers, such as the oil and gas industry here in North Dakota," Cramer said in a video message.
Cramer has become one of the most vocal advocates of the US oil industry after the COVID-19 decimated up to 30 percent of crude demand, driving prices down more than 70 percent on the year. The lawmaker from President Donald Trump's Republican party has urged the administration to block or tax cheap oil imports into the United States, particularly those from Saudi Arabia, to protect a local industry already struggling with a sea of unwanted supply.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the New York-traded benchmark for US crude, settled April trading at $18.84 a barrel on Thursday, down 8 percent for the month and 75 percent lower on the year. Last week, WTI fell to subzero prices for the first time in its 37-year history, falling to as low as minus $40 versus the $61 per barrel level it began 2020 at.
