The amount of crude oil sitting in storage is almost literally off the chart

US crude oil inventories are keep swelling.

On Wednesday, the Energy Information Administration reported that inventories rose by 8.4 million barrels last week to 494.9 million. Analysts were expecting the build to be about half of that.

Inventories are now at the highest level since 1930 and basically at a record high (though there's no official data going back further than 1980, there is a very small chance the current amount of oil sitting in storage is not an all-time record).

In a blog post after the EIA's release, Bespoke Investment published this chart showing oil inventories in 2016 compared to historical averages.

"As shown in the chart below, another week like this and we are going to have to adjust our y-axis higher."

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