US commercial crude oil inventories rose by 0.7% during the week ending March 22, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Inventories increased by around 3.2 million barrels to 448.2 million barrels, compared to the market prediction of a decrease of around 700,000 barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, increased by about 700,000 barrels to 363.1 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Gasoline inventories rose by approximately 1.3 million barrels to 232.1 million barrels over the same period.
– Crude production falls
EIA data showed that US crude oil production declined by 9,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 13.53 million bpd during the week ending March 22.
US crude oil imports rose by 424,000 bpd to about 6.70 million bpd, while crude oil exports fell by 700,000 bpd to approximately 4.18 million bpd over the same period.
In the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on March 12, the EIA predicted that crude oil output in the country would reach an average of 13.19 million bpd this year.
Next year, crude oil output in the country is expected to reach 13.65 million bpd.
