You might want to avoid paying hefty municipal taxes or another impending viability, at which point paying less than taxes might sound like a cheaper alternativ

You might want to avoid paying hefty municipal taxes or another impending viability, at which point paying less than taxes might sound like a cheaper alternative to get rid of the house. Same with these oil producers. There might be too much crude sitting on trucks going to an already-full storage facility, and they need to clear space in order to empty trucks, even if production upstream has already shut down.