Following last night's massive inventory build report from API (biggest in 8 months), DOE piled on by confirming a 14.42mm barrel build - the biggest in the 34 year history of EIA data. Cushing saw a small build but Gasoline and Distillates saw drawdowns. Crude and RBOB prices are tumbling on the news, not helped by the 3rd weekly rise in US Crude production.

API

• Crude +9.3mm (+1.54mm avg. exp)
• Cushing +1mm (-250k exp)
• Gasoline -3.5mm (-1mm exp)
• Distillates -3.1mm

DOE

• Crude +14.42mm (+2mm exp)
• Cushing  +89k (+235k exp)
• Gasoline -2.2mm (-1mm exp)
• Distillates -1.8mm (-1.9mm exp)

API's biggest build in 8 months was nothing compared to the 14.4mm build from DOE - the biggest build ever. Distillates have now drawn down for 6 straight weeks. As Bloomberg's Margot Habiby reports, most of the increase in crude inventories -- 8.11 million barrels out of 14.4 million overall -- was in the critical Gulf Coast region, where about half of U.S. refining capacity is located.

With Crude inventories erasing half the drawdown since August in one week... (-26mm barrels in 2 months, +14.4mm in 1 week)

US Crude production rose for the 3rd week in a row...

And US Crude imports soared to the highest since 2012...

U.S. avg weekly crude imports rose 28% to ~9m b/d last week, the largest volume since September 2012,according to preliminary EIA data for week ending Oct. 28.

Total U.S. imports of crude 8995k b/d vs 7016k

• PADD1: 1164k vs 884k
• PADD2: 2538k vs 2212k
• PADD3: 3814k vs 2913k, highest since July
• PADD4: 344k vs 312k
• PADD5: 1135k vs 696k

Imports into U.S. by country in b/d:

• Canada imports 3282k vs 2885k
• Saudi Arabia imports 1170k vs 983k
• Venezuela imports 835k vs 466k
• Mexico imports 688k vs 323k
• Colombia imports 602k vs 333k
• Ecuador imports 156k vs 179k
• Nigeria imports 345k vs 71k
• Kuwait imports 85k vs 198k
• Iraq imports 645k vs 505k
• Angola imports 30k vs 163k

WTI Crude had extended losses to a $45 handle overnight after the API build (and RBOB swung widely) and plunged on the print...

And finally, bear in mind that oil prices are entering a seasonally weak period...