US commercial crude oil inventories fell 0.4% during the week ending March 15, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Inventories declined by around 2 million barrels to 445 million barrels, compared to the market prediction of a decrease of around 900,000 barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, increased by about 800,000 barrels to 362.3 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Gasoline inventories decreased by approximately 3.3 million barrels to 230.8 million barrels over the same period.
– Crude production rises
EIA data showed that US crude oil production increased by 9,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 13.54 million bpd during the week ending March 15.
US crude oil imports rose by 787,000 bpd to about 6.28 million bpd, and crude oil exports increased by 1.73 million bpd to approximately 4.88 million bpd over the same period.
In the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on March 12, the EIA predicted that crude oil output in the country would reach an average of 13.19 million bpd this year.
Next year, crude oil output in the country is expected to reach 13.65 million bpd.
