US commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 1.1% during the week ending Jan. 7, according to the latest data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Inventories fell by 4.6 million barrels to 413.3 million barrels, exceeding the market expectation of a 1.95 million-barrel drop.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are not included in commercial crude stocks, also declined by 300,000 million barrels to 593.4 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
However, gasoline inventories increased by 8 million barrels to 240.7 million barrels over that period.
-Crude production decreases
According to EIA data, US crude oil imports increased by 185,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 6.07 million bpd during the week ending Dec. 31, while crude oil exports decreased by around 599,000 bpd to around 1.96 million bpd.
US crude oil production, meanwhile, decreased by 99,000 bpd to approximately 12.16 million bpd during the same period.
The EIA estimates that US crude output will reach 11.8 million bpd for 2022 and will rise to 12.4 million bpd in 2023, which would be the highest annual average US crude oil production on record.
By Ebru Sengul Cevrioglu
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr