U.S. crude oil inventories rose last week despite the market expectation of a decline, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Commercial crude oil inventories increased by 2.4 million barrels, or 0.6%, to 419.5 million barrels for the week ending Sept. 20, the EIA data showed. The market expectation was a fall of 249,000 barrels. Inventories rose by 1.06 million barrels over the previous week.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are not included in the commercial crude stocks, remained unchanged at 644.8 million barrels last week, according to the data.
Gasoline inventories also rose by 0.5 million barrels, or 0.2%, to 230.2 million barrels during that period, more than the market expectation of an increase of 296,000 barrels. The previous week saw gasoline inventories increase by 781,000 barrels.
- Crude production rises
U.S. crude oil production increased slightly by 49,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 12.5 million bpd for the week ending Sept. 20, the EIA data showed.
Last week, there was a 49,000 bpd increase in crude production in the state of Alaska, while other U.S. states excluding Hawaii saw their output remain unchanged from the previous week.
Production of 12.5 million bpd was last seen during the week ending August 23, marking a record high in the country, according to the EIA data.
Crude oil production in the U.S. is expected to average 12.2 million bpd in 2019 and 13.2 million bpd in 2020, according to the EIA's Short Term Energy Outlook report for September.
By Ovunc Kutlu
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr