US commercial crude oil inventories rose by 0.6% during the week ending April 12, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Inventories increased by around 2.7 million barrels to 460 million barrels, compared to the market prediction of a rise of around 1.6 million barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, also increased by about 600,000 barrels to 364.9 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Gasoline inventories, however, fell by approximately 1.2 million barrels to 227.4 million barrels over the same period.
– Crude production falls
EIA data showed that US crude oil production declined by 5,000 million barrels per day (bpd) to 13.53 million bpd during the week ending April 12.
US crude oil imports rose by 27,000 bpd to about 6.46 million bpd, and crude oil exports increased by 2.01 million bpd to approximately 4.72 million bpd over the same period.
In the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on April 9, the EIA predicted that crude oil output in the country would reach an average of 13.21 million bpd this year.
Next year, crude oil output in the country is expected to reach 13.72 million bpd.
