The report from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows that total crude oil and petroleum products (ex. SPR) stocks soared +19.93 mmb to 1373.89 mmb in the week ended December 9. Crude oil inventory rose 15.19 mmb (consensus: -1.42 mmb) to 503.23 mmb. Stockpile increased in 4 out of 5 PADDs. PADD 3 (Gulf Coast) alone saw +11.79 mmb surge in stockpile. Cushing stock declined -1.36 mmb to 58.21 mmb. Utilization rate increased +1.7 percentage point to 79.9% while crude production steadied at 11.1M bpd for the week. Crude oil imports gained +1.08M bpd to 6.48M bpd in the week. 
Concerning refined oil product inventories, gasoline inventory rose +4.22 mmb to 237.86 mmb as demand dropped -4.7% to 7.6M bpd. The market had anticipated a +2.27 mmb increase in stockpile. Production dropped -2.8% to 8.34M bpd while imports fell -29.2% to 0.79M bpd during the week. Distillate jumped +5.22 mmb to 151.09 mmb. The market had anticipated a +1.41 mmb decrease. Demand declined -10.6% to 3.39M bpd. Production added +1.8% to 4.67 mmb while imports plunged -54.6% to 0.28M bpd during the week.
A day earlier, the industry-sponsored API estimated that crude oil inventory gained +1.14 mmb. Gasoline stockpiled jumped 6.44 mmb while that for distillate was up +2.32 mmb.
