US commercial crude oil inventories increased by 0.2% during the week ending Sept. 6, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) late Wednesday.
Inventories rose by about 800,000 barrels to 419.1 million barrels, compared to the market prediction of a rise of around 900,000 barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, increased by about 300,000 barrels to 380 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Over the same period, gasoline inventories rose by approximately 2.3 million barrels to 221.6 million barrels.
– Crude production falls
EIA data showed that US crude oil production fell 46,000 bpd to 13.65 million barrels per day (bpd) during the week ending Sept. 6.
US crude oil imports increased by 1.07 million bpd to about 6.86 million bpd, while exports fell by 451,000 bpd to 3.30 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.
