US commercial crude oil inventories increased 0.8% during the week ending July 8, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Inventories rose by 3.3 million barrels to 427.1 million barrels.
However, strategic petroleum reserves, which are not included in commercial crude stocks, declined by 6.9 million barrels to 485.1 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Gasoline inventories increased by 5.8 million barrels to 224.9 million barrels over the same period.
According to EIA data, US crude oil imports decreased by 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 6.7 million bpd during the week ending July 8, while crude oil exports increased by 412,000 bpd to 3.02 million bpd.
US crude oil production, meanwhile, decreased by 74,000 bpd to approximately 12.43 million bpd over the same period.
By Murat Temizer
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr