US commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 1.1% during the week ending Sept. 20, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) late Wednesday.
Inventories fell by around 4.5 million barrels to 413 million barrels, higher than the market prediction of about 1.3 million barrels draw.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, increased by approximately 1.3 million barrels to 381.9 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Over the same period, gasoline inventories fell by around 1.5 million barrels to 220.1 million barrels.
– Crude production rises
EIA data showed that US crude oil production increased by about 9,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 13.62 million bpd during the week ending Sept. 20.
US crude oil imports rose by 135,000 bpd to approximately 6.46 million bpd, while exports decreased by 692,000 bpd to around 3.9 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.
