US commercial crude oil inventories increased by 0.2% in the week ending Sept. 25, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Inventories rose by about 900,000 barrels to 427.3 million barrels, while market expectations forecast a decrease of around 700,000 barrels.
However, strategic petroleum reserves, excluded from commercial crude stocks, decreased by about 800,000 barrels to 283.8 million barrels.
Over the same period, gasoline inventories also fell by approximately 1.7 million barrels to 204.4 million barrels.
– Crude output up
EIA data showed that US crude oil production rose by 16,000 barrels per day (bpd) to approximately 13.95 million bpd in the week ending Sept. 25.
US crude oil imports decreased by around 179,000 bpd to 5.69 million bpd and exports increased by about 289,000 bpd to 3.57 million bpd over the same period.
In its Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on Sept. 9, the EIA forecast that US crude oil output would average 13.83 million bpd in 2026.
