US commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 1.1% for the week ending June 4, according to the latest data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Inventories fell by 5.2 million barrels to 474 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 1.3 million barrels to 626.5 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
However, gasoline inventories increased by 7 million barrels to 241 million barrels over that period.
-Crude production rises
According to EIA data, US crude oil imports fell by 1.07 million barrels per day (bpd) to around 6.63 million bpd for the week ending June 4, while crude oil exports increased by 387,000 bpd to around 2.93 million bpd.
The data showed that US crude oil production decreased by 203,000 bpd to approximately 11.4 million bpd during the same period.
The EIA forecasts that US crude output is estimated at 11.1 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 Sibel Morrow
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr