US commercial crude oil inventories increased by 0.9% during the week ending Sept. 8, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Inventories rose by around 4 million barrels to 420.6 million barrels, compared to the American Petroleum Institute’s expectation of a growth of around 1.2 million barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, increased by 300,000 to stand at 350.6 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Gasoline inventories increased by 5.6 million barrels to 220.3 million barrels over the same period.
– Crude production rises
EIA data showed that US crude oil production increased by 119,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 13.32 million bpd during the week ending Sept. 8.
US crude oil imports increased by about 812,000 bpd to around 7.58 million bpd over the same period, while crude oil exports fell by around 1.84 million bpd to approximately 3.09 million bpd.
In the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on Sept. 12, the EIA predicted that crude oil output in the country would reach an average of 12.78 million bpd this year.
Next year, crude oil output in the country is expected to reach 13.16 million bpd.
