US commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 2.1% during the week ending Jan. 19, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Inventories decreased by around 9.2 million barrels to 420.7 million barrels, compared to the market expectation of a fall of around 3 million barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, increased by 900,000 barrels to 356.5 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Gasoline inventories also rose by around 4.9 million barrels to 253 million barrels over the same period.
– Crude production falls
EIA data showed that US crude oil production declined by 1 million barrels per day (bpd) to around 12.72 million bpd during the week ending Jan. 19.
US crude oil imports fell by 1.84 million bpd to about 5.58 million bpd, and crude oil exports dropped by 595,000 bpd to approximately 4.43 million bpd over the same period.
In the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on Jan. 9, the EIA predicted that crude oil output in the country would reach an average of 13.21 million bpd this year.
Next year, crude oil output in the country is expected to reach 13.44 million bpd.
