Sidney – Coronavirus Impacts Petroleum Industry

The coronavirus has hit Montana’s petroleum industry hard with the slowing of the Chinese economy depressing global demand as a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia floods the market with oil that’s cheaper than Montana can produce. Montana’s oil industry particularly the Bakken Formation of eastern Montana’s Williston Basin is not competitive. Montana Petroleum Association Executive Director Alan Olson says it’s kind of almost a perfect storm between what’s happening in the economy because of the coronavirus and how production numbers have climbed.