U.S. crude oil inventories increased by more than the market expectation last week, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.

Commercial crude oil inventories increased by 5.7 million barrels, or 1.3%, to 438.9 million barrels for the week ending Oct. 25, the EIA data showed. The market expectation was a rise of 0.5 million barrels. Inventories fell by 1.7 million barrels the previous week.

Strategic petroleum reserves, which are not included in the commercial crude stocks, fell by 0.7 million barrels, or 0.1%, to 641.7 million barrels last week, according to the data.

Gasoline inventories also showed a decline of 3 million barrels, or 1.4%, to 220.1 million barrels during that period, more than the market expectation of a decrease of 2.2 million barrels. The previous week saw gasoline inventories decline by 3.1 million barrels.

-Crude production falls slightly

While U.S. crude oil imports rose by 840,000 barrels per day (bpd) to reach 6.7 million bpd for the week ending Oct. 25, crude oil exports fell by 356,000 bpd to 3.3 million bpd, according to the EIA data.

U.S. crude oil production decreased slightly by 29,000 bpd to remain almost unchanged at 12.6 million bpd for the week ending Oct. 25, the EIA data showed. The 29,000 bpd decline emerged in the state of Alaska, while output from other U.S. states, excluding Hawaii, remained unchanged.

Crude oil production at a record high level of 12.6 million bpd was first reached during the week ending Oct. 4, according to the EIA data.

Crude oil production in the U.S. is expected to average 12.3 million bpd in 2019 and 13.2 million bpd in 2020, according to the EIA's Short-Term Energy Outlook report for October.

By Ovunc Kutlu

Anadolu Agency

energy@aa.com.tr