By Maha Shahid
August 20, 2026 6:43 amUS commercial crude oil inventories increased by 1% in the week ending Aug. 14, far above market expectations, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Inventories rose by around 4.4 million barrels to 428.8 million barrels, compared with market expectations for an increase of around 200,000 barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude inventories, decreased by about 5.3 million barrels to 293.4 million barrels.
Over the same period, gasoline inventories rose by approximately 700,000 barrels to 209.4 million barrels.
– Crude output increases
EIA data showed that US crude oil production rose by 25,000 barrels per day (bpd) to about 13.83 million bpd during the week ending Aug. 14.
US crude oil imports decreased by 746,000 bpd to around 6.6 million bpd, while exports increased by 1 million bpd to about 4.07 million bpd over the same period.
In its Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on Aug. 11, the EIA forecast that US crude oil output would average 13.8 million bpd in 2026.
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