US commercial crude oil inventories increased by 1% during the week ending May 26, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) late Thursday.
Inventories rose by around 4.5 million barrels to 459.7 million barrels, lower than the American Petroleum Institute’s expectation of a jump of 5.2 million barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, however, fell by about 2.5 million barrels to 355.4 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Gasoline inventories also declined by around 200,000 barrels to 216.1 million barrels over the same period.
– Crude production decreases
EIA data showed that US crude oil imports increased by about 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd) to around 7.22 million bpd during the week ending May 26, while crude oil exports rose by 366,000 bpd to about 4.92 million bpd.
US crude oil production, meanwhile, fell by 120,000 bpd and stood at 12.62 million bpd over the same period.
In the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on May 9, the EIA forecast that crude oil output in the US would average 12.53 million bpd this year, up from 11.90 million bpd in 2022.
Crude oil output in the country in 2024 is forecast to reach 11.88 million bpd.
