As refiners throttled back activity due to slumping demand as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, the US Energy Information Administration said US crude oil stockpiles rose by 19 million barrels last week, the biggest one-week increase in history.
The optimism that had bloomed due to a worldwide pact to slash output sharply between oil producers offset by the build for last week. Crude futures plunged on the news.
Due to the pandemic, global fuel demand has slumped by roughly 30 percent. Over the last four weeks, EIA said gasoline demand has dropped by 32 percent from the year-ago period.
Refiners have responded by slashing crude processing and purchases. They were operating the lowest since September 2008, at 69 percent of capacity nationwide.
Meanwhile, storage continues to fill. For US crude futures USOICC=ECI, crude stocks rose by 5.7 million barrels at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub last week. The hub has about 76 million barrels of capacity and pipeline companies said it could be full by mid-May.
