It is not a waste product. This is oil from the wells.
by the way, this looks to be fake. The link below is to the real bulletin prices. Click on Jan 15 and the price shows as $1.5, not -$0.5.
https://www.fhr.com/refining/bulletins.aspx
If it’s poor-quality “sour” crude oil in small quantities from an inconvenient location, not unlikely that nobody particularly wants it unless paid a modest sum to take it.
Looking at your link, I’m inclined to think the price was fluctuating thru the day.
A single train tanker car carries about 700 barrels. The refinery in question produces about 21 carloads of this stuff, selling for $0.50/barrel on 1/12 ... that’s $7500 gross revenue on one day’s production, or about $350 per carload. At that price, it’s a real short step from barely covering cost of selling the largely unwanted cargo, to paying someone the price of taking away what otherwise would be free (but for the relentless cost of removing that which can’t be viably stored).
Between this and the “no ships are moving” article, methinks Tyler Durden is doing everything he can to be first to call “the avalanche is starting!” - he’s sorta onto something, but reality isn’t what he’s trying to portray it as.