US commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 0.3% during the week ending Dec. 6, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) late Wednesday.
Inventories fell by around 1.4 million barrels to 422 million barrels, surpassing the market prediction of 1 million barrels decline.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, increased by approximately 700,000 barrels to 392.5 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Over the same period, gasoline inventories rose by around 5.1 million barrels to 219.7 million barrels.
- Crude production increases
EIA data showed that US crude oil production increased by 113,000 barrels per day (bpd) to about 14.07 million bpd during the week ending Dec. 6.
US crude oil imports decreased by 1.31 million bpd to approximately 5.98 million bpd while exports fell by 1.14 million bpd to around 3.1 million bpd over the same period.
In the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on Dec. 10, the EIA predicted that crude oil output in the country would reach an average of 13.24 million bpd this year.
Next year, crude oil output in the country is expected to average 13.52 million bpd.
By Firdevs Yuksel
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr