US commercial crude oil inventories increased by 0.6% in the week ending July 31, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Inventories rose by around 2.5 million barrels to 407 million barrels, while market expectations had forecast a decrease of around 1.5 million barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, decreased by about 2.8 million barrels to 304.8 million barrels.
Over the same period, gasoline inventories also fell by approximately 1.6 million barrels to 209.7 million barrels.
– Crude output increases
EIA data showed that US crude oil production increased by 8,000 barrels per day (bpd) to about 13.8 million bpd during the week ending July 31.
US crude oil imports rose by 515,000 bpd to around 6.2 million bpd, and exports increased by 218,000 bpd to about 3.69 million bpd over the same period.
In its Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on July 7, the EIA forecast that US crude oil output would average 13.78 million bpd in 2026.
