US benchmark WTI oil price closes at -$37.63/barrel

Oil prices ended New York trading in the negative on Monday for the first time ever, as a supply glut forced traders to pay others to take the commodity.

With space to store oil scarce, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for May delivery ended trading at -$37.63 a barrel ahead of Tuesday's close for futures contracts -- when traders who buy and sell the commodity for profit would have had to take physical posession of it.