Commercial crude oil inventories in the US decreased by 1.6% for the week ending Oct. 30, according to data released by the country's Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Inventories fell by 8 million barrels to 484.4 million barrels against the market expectation of a 890,000 barrel rise.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are not included in the commercial crude stocks, fell to 639.3 million barrels for the week ending Oct. 30, the data showed.
Gasoline inventories increased by 1.5 million barrels, or 0.7%, to 227.7 million barrels over that period.
- Crude production decreases
According to EIA data, US crude oil imports increased by 634,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 5 million bpd for the week ending Oct. 30, while crude oil exports saw a decrease of 1.2 bpd to 2.3 million bpd.
The data showed that US crude oil production fell by 602,000 bpd to approximately 10.9 million bpd during the same period.
US crude output is now estimated at 11.2 million bpd in 2020 and 11.1 million bpd in 2021, down from 12.2 million bpd in 2019, according to the EIA's forecast.
In November 2018, the US first surpassed Saudi Arabia, and then Russia to become the world's biggest crude oil producer.
By Firdevs Yuksel
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr