US commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 0.4% during the week ending Sept. 13, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) late Wednesday.
Inventories fell by around 1.6 million barrels to 417.5 million barrels, higher than the market prediction of a decline of about 200,000 barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, increased by approximately 700,000 barrels to 380.6 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Over the same period, gasoline inventories rose by around 100,000 barrels to 221.6 million barrels.
– Crude production falls
EIA data showed that US crude oil production fell by about 43,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 13.61 million bpd during the week ending Sept. 13.
US crude oil imports decreased by 545,000 bpd to approximately 6.32 million bpd, while exports increased by 1.28 million bpd to around 4.59 million bpd over the same period.
In the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on Sept. 10, the EIA predicted that crude oil output in the country would reach an average of 13.3 million bpd this year.
Next year, crude oil output in the country is expected to reach 13.7 million bpd.
