US commercial crude oil inventories fell by 0.9% in the week ending May 8, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on late Wednesday.
Inventories declined by 4.3 million barrels to around 452.9 million barrels, while market expectations had pointed to a decrease of 2 million barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, fell by 8.6 million barrels to 384.1 million barrels, the data revealed.
Over the same period, gasoline inventories dropped by 4.1 million barrels to about 215.7 million barrels.
- Crude production increases
EIA data showed that US crude oil production rose by 137,000 barrels per day (bpd) to about 13.71 million bpd during the week ending May 8.
US crude oil imports increased by 424,000 bpd to around 5.90 million bpd, while exports increased by 742,000 bpd to about 5.49 million bpd over the same period.
In its Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on May 12, the EIA forecast that US crude oil output would average 13.65 million bpd in 2026.
By Ebru Sengul Cevrioglu
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr
