US commercial crude oil inventories declined by 2.6% during the week ending June 28, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) late Wednesday.
Inventories fell by about 12.2 million barrels to 448.5 million barrels, compared to the market prediction of a fall of around 400,000 barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, increased by about 400,000 barrels to 372.6 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Over the same period, gasoline inventories fell by approximately 2.2 million barrels to 231.7 million barrels.
– Crude production falls
EIA data showed that US crude oil production declined by 27,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 13.58 million bpd during the week ending June 28.
US crude oil imports also decreased by 65,000 bpd to about 6.54 million bpd, and exports rose by 491,000 bpd to approximately 4.40 million bpd over the same period.
In the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on June 11, the EIA predicted that crude oil output in the country would reach an average of 13.24 million bpd this year.
Next year, crude oil output in the country is expected to reach 13.71 million bpd.
