US commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 1.4% during the week ending June 20, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) late Wednesday.
Inventories fell by around 5.8 million barrels to 415.1 million barrels, significantly more than the market expectation of a 1.2 million-barrel decline.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, increased by 200,000 barrels, reaching 402.5 million barrels, the data revealed.
Over the same period, gasoline inventories fell by around 2.1 million barrels to 227.9 million.
- Crude production increases
EIA data showed that US crude oil production rose by 4,000 barrels per day (bpd) to about 13.44 million bpd during the week ending June 120.
US crude oil imports increased by 439,000 bpd to approximately 5.9 million bpd, while exports decreased by 91,000 bpd to around 4.27 million bpd over the same period.
In the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on June 10, the EIA projected that crude oil output in the country would average 13.4 million bpd in 2025.
By Firdevs Yuksel
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr