US commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 1.5% during the week ending Sept. 1, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursday.
Inventories fell by around 6.3 million barrels to 416.6 million barrels, compared to the American Petroleum Institute's expectation of a draw of around 5.5 million barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, increased by 800,000 to stand at 350.3 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Gasoline inventories declined by 2.7 million barrels to 214.7 million barrels over the same period.
- Crude production unchanged
EIA data showed that US crude oil production remained unchanged at 13.2 million barrels per day (bpd) during the week ending Sept. 1.
US crude oil imports increased by about 154,000 bpd to around 6.77 million bpd over the same period, while crude oil exports rose by around 404,000 bpd to about 4.93 million bpd.
In the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on Aug. 10, the EIA predicted that crude oil output in the country would reach an average of 12.80 million bpd this year.
Next year, crude oil output in the country is expected to reach 13 million bpd.
By Zeynep Beyza Kilic
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr