US commercial crude oil inventories increased by 0.4% during the week ending Dec. 30, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) late Thursday.
Inventories rose by around 1.7 million barrels to 420.6 million barrels, against the market expectation of a rise of around 3.3 million barrels.
However, strategic petroleum reserves, excluded from commercial crude stocks, fell by 2.7 million barrels to 372.4 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Gasoline inventories also decreased by 300,000 barrels to 222.7 million barrels over the same period.
- Crude production increases
EIA data showed that US crude oil imports decreased by 540,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 5.71 million bpd during the week ending Dec. 30, while crude oil exports increased by 742,000 bpd to about 4.2 million bpd.
US crude oil production, meanwhile, rose by 99,000 bpd to approximately 12.55 million bpd over the same period.
In the December Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), the EIA forecasted that crude oil output in the US would average 11.87 million bpd in 2022, up from 11.25 million bpd in 2021.
Crude oil output in the country in 2023 is forecast to reach 12.34 million bpd.
By Sibel Morrow
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr