In December, total motor gasoline deliveries rose 2.0% from December 2014 to average just above 9.1 million barrels per day. Distillate deliveries decreased by 12.7% compared with December 2014 to average 3.6 million barrels.

US crude oil production in December averaged just below 9.3 million barrels per day, down 1.4% compared with December 2014. December crude oil output remains the second highest output level for the month of December in 43 years, since 1972. Natural gas liquids (NGL) production, a co-product of natural gas production, averaged nearly 3.4 million barrels per day–the highest production for the month on December on record. NGL production in December was 6.5% higher than year ago levels.

US total petroleum imports increased from the prior year, rising 0.9%. However, total petroleum imports remain the second lowest imports for the month of December since 1997, averaging nearly 9.5 million barrels per day in December. Meanwhile, crude oil imports were up 4.6% compared with the prior year to 7.6 million barrels per day.

US gross refinery inputs fell 0.1% from December 2014. At 4.7 million barrels per day, exports of refined petroleum products were down 3.2% from December 2014.

Gasoline production in December was the second highest output for the month of December, averaging 9.7 million barrels per day. This was down 2% from December 2014. At 5.1 million barrels per day, distillate production was down 3.7% compared to the prior year.

The refinery capacity utilization rate averaged 92.4% in December, down 1.6 percentage points lower than year ago levels. API’s latest refinery operable capacity was 18.125 million barrels per day, up 1.8% from last year’s capacity of 17.811 million barrels per day.

Crude oil stocks reached their highest inventory level for the month of December since 1930. At nearly 484.0 million barrels, crude stocks were up 23% or 90.6 million barrels higher than December 2014. Stocks of motor gasoline were down 4.7% from December 2014 to 229.0 million barrels. Distillate fuel oil stocks were up 14.7% from year ago levels and ended at 156.3 million barrels–the highest inventory level for the month in five years, since 2010. Jet fuel stocks were up 5.8% from the prior year. Stocks of “other oils” were up from year ago levels. Total inventories of all oils were up by 11.8% from year ago levels.