US commercial crude oil inventories increased by 0.8% during the week ending Feb. 23, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursday.
Inventories rose by around 4.2 million barrels to 447.2 million barrels, compared to the market expectation of an increase of around 8.4 million barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, also increased by 700,000 barrels to 360.3 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
However, gasoline inventories decreased by around 2.8 million barrels to 244.2 million barrels over the same period.
– Crude production rises
EIA data showed that US crude oil production fell by 1,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 13.7 million bpd during the week ending Feb. 23.
US crude oil imports decreased by 269,000 bpd to reach 6.4 million bpd, and crude oil exports also fell by 237,000 bpd to approximately 4.73 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.
