US commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 1.4% during the week ending April 19, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) late on Wednesday.
Inventories fell by around 6.4 million barrels to 453.6 million barrels, compared to the market prediction of a rise of around 1.6 million barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, increased by about 800,000 barrels to 365.7 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Gasoline inventories, however, decreased by approximately 600,000 barrels to 226.7 million barrels over the same period.
- Crude production rises
EIA data showed that US crude oil production increased by 6,000 million barrels per day (bpd) to 13.54 million bpd during the week ending April 19.
US crude oil imports rose by 36,000 bpd to about 6.5 million bpd, and crude oil exports increased by 453,000 bpd to approximately 5.18 million bpd over the same period.
In the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on April 9, the EIA predicted that crude oil output in the country would reach an average of 13.21 million bpd this year.
Next year, crude oil output in the country is expected to reach 13.72 million bpd.
By Firdevs Yuksel
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr