On Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration released its Weekly Petroleum Status Report, which showed a significant jump in U.S. crude oil inventories:
Total oil stocks, including the Strategic Petroleum Reserve ("SPR"), jumped by 12.9 million barrels, which represented one of the largest increases in recent weeks. Further, total oil stocks jumped by nearly 69 million barrels from the year-ago period. Finally, crude oil inventories jumped by 3.7 million barrels, including a draw of 1.8 million barrels in the U.S. SPR.
The following table illustrates the drivers of the jump in crude oil inventories:
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