On the program today, we'll do a little bit of data. We'll talk food. And then we'll go to a car show.

From American public media, this is Marketplace.

I'm Kyle. Rizdahl. It is Monday today, 5 May. Good as always to have you along, everybody.

$57.6 is the marketplace price point of the day. That's how much barrel of the U.S. benchmark crude oil,

West Texas, intermediate, would it cost you at the close in New York today?

It's the cheapest it's been since early 2021 when prices were still recovering from their

pandemic crash. It's also not for nothing, more than 20 bucks cheaper than a year ago, probably

going to head even lower, too. OPEC plus said over the weekend, it's going to start pumping more,

no matter what that whole supply demand price curve tells them.

So, yay, cheap gas, right?

Oh, that it were so simple.

Marketplaces Henry Ep explains it is possible for a barrel of oil to be too cheap.

In an ideal world, oil companies would like a barrel of crude to sell for more than the

break-even price.

It's the price of oil at which oil companies can profitably drill a well.

Mark Finley is a fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute.

Like any business, they want to make money after taking into account all their costs.

It's everything from having your corporate headquarters to buying the land or buying the rights to the land,

lining up a drilling crew, paying for the pipe and fracking fluid.

Every company and every drilling project has its own break-even price, but in general,

$60-ish dollars a barrel is the sweet spot for producing oil onshore in the U.S.

When prices go below that, some companies halt production.

...