The move lower comes even after President Trump said Friday that the Department of Energy would purchase crude oil for the SPR in a bid to prop up prices. “Based on the price of oil, I’ve also instructed the secretary of Energy to purchase at a very good price large quantities of crude oil for storage in the U.S. strategic reserve,” Trump said Friday from the Rose Garden as he also declared a state of emergency. “We’re going to fill it right up to the top, saving the American taxpayer billions and billions of dollars, helping our oil industry [and furthering] that wonderful goal — which we’ve achieved, which nobody thought was possible — of energy independence,” he added. The government could begin purchasing oil as soon as two weeks from now, Reuters reported on Monday. Again Capital founder John Kilduff said the move to beef up the SPR is a “fantastic idea” and in prior instances has “served the country well.” “Releases of supplies have served to short-circuit price rallies in the past, and this filling may well serve to ebb the current sell-off,” he said.

But not everyone is as optimistic. Goldman Sachs said Sunday that it doesn’t believe the administration’s actions will be enough to offset oil’s steep sell-off. “Given the scale and strategic nature of the current global surplus, we believe that these SPR purchases will be insufficient to reverse the increasingly likely risk that prices fall below our 2Q-3Q20 $30/bbl Brent forecast to cash-costs,” the firm said. Last week the firm slashed its oil forecasts for the second quarter as tensions between Saudi Arabia and Russia escalated. The firm now sees U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude averaging $29 per barrel, with international benchmark Brent crude at $30 per barrel. Goldman’s prior estimates were $42.50 and $47, respectively.