US commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 0.8% during the week ending Nov. 18, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on late Wednesday.
Inventories declined by around 3.7 million barrels to 431.7 million barrels, against the market expectation of a decrease of around 2.2 million barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, excluded from commercial crude stocks, fell by 1.6 million barrels to 390.5 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Gasoline inventories increased by 3.1 million barrels to 211 million barrels over the same period.
- Crude production stays unchanged
EIA data showed that US crude oil imports rose by 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) to around 7.06 million bpd during the week ending Nov. 18, while crude oil exports rose by around 380,000 bpd to 4.24 million bpd.
US crude oil production, meanwhile, stayed the same at 12.54 million bpd over the same period.
In the November Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), the EIA forecasted that crude oil output in the US would average 11.83 million bpd in 2022, up from 11.25 million bpd in 2021.
Crude oil output in the country in 2023 is forecast to reach 12.31 million bpd.
By Zeynep Beyza Kilic
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr