US commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 2% for the week ending Jan. 22, according to the latest data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Inventories fell by 9.9 million barrels to 476.7 million barrels, against the market expectation of a build of 603,000 barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are not included in commercial crude stocks, remained unchanged at 638.1 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Gasoline inventories increased by 2.5 million barrels, or 1%, to 247.7 million barrels over that period.
- Crude production declines
According to EIA data, US crude oil imports decreased by 981,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 5.06 million bpd for the week ending Jan. 22, while crude oil exports also saw a jump of 1.1 million bpd to 3.36 million bpd.
The data showed that US crude oil production decreased by 97,000 bpd to approximately 11.4 million bpd during the same period.
The EIA's forecast shows that US crude output is now estimated at 11.1 million bpd for 2021, down from 11.3 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