US commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 1% for the week ending May 28, according to the latest data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Inventories fell by 5.1 million barrels to 479.3 million barrels, higher than the market expectation of a 2.1 million-barrel draw.

Strategic petroleum reserves, which are not included in commercial crude stocks, also fell by 600,000 barrels to 627.8 million barrels last week, the data revealed.

However, gasoline inventories increased by 1.5 million barrels to 234 million barrels over that period.

According to EIA data, US crude oil imports fell by 641,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 5.63 million bpd for the week ending May 28, while crude oil exports decreased by 889,000 bpd to around 2.54 million bpd.

The data showed that US crude oil production decreased by 208,000 bpd to approximately 11.4 million bpd during the same period.

The EIA forecasts that US crude output is estimated at 11.2 million bpd for 2021, down from 11.24 million bpd in 2020.

In November 2018, the US first surpassed Saudi Arabia and then Russia to become the world's largest crude oil producer.

By Firdevs Yuksel

Anadolu Agency

energy@aa.com.tr