Total diesel and gasoil inventories across Flushing, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp (FARA) stood at 6.010 million metric tons for the week ending Oct. 2, filling 72.8% of the region’s distillate storage capacity.

That’s 167,432 tons lower than for the week ending Sept. 25, when distillate stocks in FARA soared to a record high of 6.178 million tons and 74.8% of inventory capacity was being used, Genscape data show.

The Sept. 25 figure was the highest since August 2012, when the consultancy began monitoring distillate stock levels across the four ports.

Prior to the week ending Sept. 25, gasoil and diesel stocks in FARA had been building for 13 consecutive weeks, Paulo Nery, Senior Director of EMEA Oil at Genscape told OPIS.

The latest distillate stocks levels are up from just 3.412 million tons for the week ending March 13 and 4.668 million tons on July 10, Genscape data show.

For the week ending Oct. 2, Flushing’s inventories were the most full, the data shows, with over 79% of capacity used.

Amsterdam’s inventories were also over 78% full while Rotterdam’s facilities had the most spare capacity, being just under 69% full, the data shows.

The largest fall across the four ports for the week to Oct 2. was in Rotterdam — where inventories slipped almost 91,000 tons — around 4% from the previous week.

“The stock increase is partly due to a seasonal trend during the summer, when market participants store more in preparation for the colder winter months. A similar pattern was observed beginning in April 2014, with storage building 1.98 million tons over a six month period,” Genscape said in a statement in September.

Jet fuel stocks across the four ports increased by 2.4%, for the week ending Oct. 2, to reach 918,092 tons. That’s 21,477 tons higher than the week before and 266,433 tons higher than in the same week a year earlier.

Over 66% of the FARA storage capacity was being utilized as of Oct. 2, the data shows. This is up from 64.9% a week earlier.

European oil product stocks have been bolstered by strong refining margins since the start of the year, which have pushed up refinery utilization rates and contributed to a regional oversupply of middle distillates.

The International Energy Agency’s latest Oil Market report said OECD Europe’s refinery throughput — the region’s capacity for refining crude — averaged 12.42 million b/d in July — a rise of 940,000 b/d from a year earlier.

The contango market structure — where forward prices are higher than ones for prompt delivery — on the ICE Gasoil futures contract has also encouraged storage of distillate products.