US commercial crude oil inventories increased 1.1% during the week ending July 29, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Inventories rose by around 4.5 million barrels to 426.6 million barrels, against the market expectation of a fall of 467,000 barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are not included in commercial crude stocks, declined by 4.7 million barrels to 469.9 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Gasoline inventories rose by 0.2 million barrels to 225.3 million barrels over the same period.
-Crude production rises
According to EIA data, US crude oil imports increased by 1.17 barrels per day (bpd) to around 7.34 million bpd during the week ending July 29, while crude oil exports decreased by 1.03 bpd to 3.51 million bpd.
US crude oil production, meanwhile, increased by 3,000 bpd to approximately 12.53 million bpd over the same period.
In the July Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), the EIA forecasts that crude oil output in the US will average 11.9 million bpd in 2022, up from 11.2 million bpd in 2021.
In 2023, crude oil output in the country is forecast to reach 12.77 million bpd.
By Zeynep Beyza Kilic
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr