US commercial crude oil inventories increased by 1.4% during the week ending March 28, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) late Wednesday.
Inventories rose by approximately 6.2 million barrels to 439.8 million barrels, contrary to market expectations of a 6.37 million-barrel increase.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, increased by 300,000 barrels to 396.4 million barrels, the data showed.
Over the same period, gasoline inventories decreased by around 1.6 million barrels to 237.6 million barrels.
– Crude production rises
EIA data showed that US crude oil production increased by 6,000 barrels per day (bpd) to about 13.58 million bpd during the week ending March 21.
US crude oil imports rose by 271,000 bpd to approximately 6.4 million bpd, while exports fell by 728,000 bpd to around 3.8 million bpd over the same period.
In the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on March 11, the EIA predicted that crude oil output in the country would reach an average of 13.61 million bpd in 2025.
