US commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 0.2% during the week ending Dec. 13, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) late Wednesday.
Inventories fell by around 900,000 barrels to 421 million barrels, lower than the market prediction of 1.6 million barrels decline.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, increased by approximately 500,000 barrels to 393.1 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Over the same period, gasoline inventories rose by around 2.3 million barrels to 222 million barrels.
– Crude production decreases
EIA data showed that US crude oil production fell by 36,000 barrels per day (bpd) to about 14.04 million bpd during the week ending Dec. 13.
US crude oil imports increased by 665,000 bpd to approximately 6.65 million bpd while exports rose by 1.8 million bpd to around 4.9 million bpd over the same period.
In the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on Dec. 10, 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 average 13.52 million bpd.
