US commercial crude oil inventories increased by 1.3% during the week ending Oct. 18, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) late Wednesday.
Inventories rose by around 5.5 million barrels to 426 million barrels, higher than the market prediction of 800,000 barrels growth.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, also increased by approximately 800,000 barrels to 384.6 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Over the same period, gasoline inventories rose by around 900,000 barrels to 213.6 million barrels.
– Crude production slightly falls
EIA data showed that US crude oil production decreased by 5,000 barrels per day (bpd) to about 13.93 million bpd during the week ending Oct. 18.
US crude oil imports increased by 902,000 bpd to approximately 6.43 million bpd while exports fell by 11,000 bpd to around 4.11 million bpd over the same period.
In the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on Oct. 9, the EIA predicted that crude oil output in the country would reach an average of 13.22 million bpd this year.
Next year, crude oil output in the country is expected to reach 13.54 million bpd.
