U.S. Gasoline Stockpiles Rise Most Since Dog Days of Market Crash

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. is once again swimming in gasoline as the pandemic worsens, underscoring the uphill battle facing the oil industry in the coming months before a vaccine can be widely distributed.

Stockpiles in the week ending December 4 grew about 4 million barrels from the previous week to about 238 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration said. That’s the highest seasonally since at least the mid-1990s when data on gasoline started being kept and the biggest single-week build since April, when driving had slowed to a halt.

Demand as reflected in gasoline supplied has been falling since late August and last week was at its lowest since May, the EIA said. At nearly 1.2 million barrels a day below December 2019 levels, the loss of demand represents the equivalent of filling up more than 2 million full Ford F-150 pickup trucks a day.

Toll data in the San Francisco Bay-area and New York highlight how driving has slowed in two of the country’s biggest cities.

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