US commercial crude oil inventories increased by 1.4% during the week ending Oct. 4, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) late Wednesday.
Inventories rose by around 5.8 million barrels to 422.7 million barrels, against market prediction of a 2 million barrels increase.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, increased by approximately 400,000 barrels to 382.9 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Over the same period, gasoline inventories fell by around 6.3 million barrels to 214.9 million barrels.
– Crude production rises
EIA data showed that US crude oil production increased by about 97,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 13.83 million bpd during the week ending Oct. 4.
US crude oil imports fell by 389,000 bpd to approximately 6.23 million bpd and exports decreased by 84,000 bpd to around 3.79 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.
