US commercial crude oil inventories increased by 0.7% in the week ending Sept. 18, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Inventories rose by about 3 million barrels to 426.4 million barrels, while market expectations forecast a decrease of around 700,000 barrels.
However, strategic petroleum reserves, excluded from commercial crude stocks, decreased by about 400,000 barrels to 284.6 million barrels.
Over the same period, gasoline inventories also fell by approximately 1.7 million barrels to 206 million barrels.
– Crude output down
EIA data showed that US crude oil production fell by 5,000 barrels per day (bpd) to approximately 13.94 million bpd in the week ending Sept. 18.
US crude oil imports decreased by around 1.18 million bpd to 5.88 million bpd and exports fell by about 1.55 million bpd to 3.28 million bpd over the same period.
In its Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on Sept. 9, the EIA forecast that US crude oil output would average 13.83 million bpd in 2026.
