US commercial crude oil inventories increased by 0.3% during the week ending March 1, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Inventories rose by around 1.4 million barrels to 448.5 million barrels, compared to the market expectation of an increase of around 423,000 barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, also increased by 700,000 barrels to 361 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
However, gasoline inventories decreased by around 4.5 million barrels to 239.7 million barrels over the same period.
– Crude production falls
EIA data showed that US crude oil production declined by 97,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 13.64 million bpd during the week ending March 1.
US crude oil imports increased by 837,000 bpd to reach 7.22 million bpd, however crude oil exports fell by 91,000 bpd to approximately 4.64 million bpd over the same period.
In the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on Feb. 6, the EIA predicted that crude oil output in the country would reach an average of 13.1 million bpd this year.
Next year, crude oil output in the country is expected to reach 13.5 million bpd.
