US commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 1.3% during the week ending Aug. 11, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Inventories fell by around 6 million barrels to 439.7 million barrels, against the American Petroleum Institute’s expectation of a draw of around 6.2 million barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, increased by 600,000 to stand at 348.4 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
However, gasoline inventories fell by 300,000 barrels to 216.2 million barrels over the same period.
– Crude production increases
EIA data showed that US crude oil imports increased by about 476,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 7.15 million bpd during the week ending Aug. 11, while crude oil exports rose by around 2.23 million bpd to about 4.59 million bpd.
US crude oil production also increased by 107,000 bpd and stood at around 13.08 million bpd over the same period.
In the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on August 10, the EIA predicted that crude oil output in the country would reach an average of 12.80 million bpd this year.
Next year, crude oil output in the country is expected to reach 13 million bpd.
