US commercial crude oil inventories declined by 0.5% during the week ending Sept. 22, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Inventories fell by around 2.2 million barrels to 416.3 million barrels, compared to the American Petroleum Institute’s expectation of a rise of around 1.6 million barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, also decreased by about 300,000 barrels to stand at 351 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
However, gasoline inventories increased by approximately 1 million barrels to 220.5 million barrels over the same period.
– Crude production rises
EIA data showed that US crude oil production rose by 3,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 13.32 million bpd during the week ending Sept. 22.
US crude oil imports also increased by 711,000 bpd to about 7.23 million bpd over the same period, while crude oil exports decreased by 1.06 million bpd to approximately 4 million bpd.
In the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on Sept. 12, the EIA predicted that crude oil output in the country would reach an average of 12.78 million bpd this year.
Next year, crude oil output in the country is expected to reach 13.16 million bpd.
