US commercial crude oil inventories increased by 0.9% during the week ending Sept. 27, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) late Wednesday.
Inventories rose by around 3.9 million barrels to 416.9 million barrels, against the market prediction of about 1.5 million barrels draw.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, increased by approximately 700,000 barrels to 382.6 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Over the same period, gasoline inventories increased by around 1.1 million barrels to 221.2 million barrels.
– Crude production rises
EIA data showed that US crude oil production increased by about 115,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 13.73 million bpd during the week ending Sept. 27.
US crude oil imports rose by 171,000 bpd to approximately 6.62 million bpd, while exports decreased by 19,000 bpd to around 3.87 million bpd over the same period.
In the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on Sept. 10, the EIA predicted that crude oil output in the country would reach an average of 13.3 million bpd this year.
Next year, crude oil output in the country is expected to reach 13.7 million bpd.
