US commercial crude oil inventories fell by 1.6% during the week ending Aug. 30, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) late Thursday.
Inventories declined by about 6.9 million barrels to 418.3 million barrels, compared to the market prediction of a fall of around 600,000 barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, increased by about 1.8 million barrels to 379.7 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Over the same period, gasoline inventories rose by approximately 800,000 barrels to 219.2 million barrels.
– Crude production unchanged
EIA data showed that US crude oil production was unchanged at 13.3 million barrels per day (bpd) during the week ending Aug. 30.
US crude oil imports fell by 768,000 bpd to about 5.79 million bpd, while exports increased by 85,000 bpd to 3.75 million bpd over the same period.
In the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on Aug. 6, the EIA predicted that crude oil output in the country would reach an average of 13.23 million bpd this year.
Next year, crude oil output in the country is expected to reach 13.69 million bpd.
