US commercial crude oil inventories increased by 2.5% during the week ending Oct. 6, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursday.
Inventories rose by around 10.2 million barrels to 424.2 million barrels, compared to the American Petroleum Institute’s expectation of a rise of around 12.9 million barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, remained unchanged at 351.3 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Meanwhile, gasoline inventories decreased by about 1.3 million barrels to 225.7 million barrels over the same period.
- Crude production rises
EIA data showed that US crude oil production rose by 298,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 13.6 million bpd during the week ending Oct. 6.
US crude oil imports also increased by 115,000 bpd to about 6.33 million bpd over the same period, while crude oil exports decreased by 1.89 million bpd to approximately 3.07 million bpd.
In the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on Oct. 11, the EIA predicted that crude oil output in the country would reach an average of 12.92 million bpd this year.
Next year, crude oil output in the country is expected to reach 13.12 million bpd.
