US commercial crude oil inventories increased by 2.5% during the week ending Dec. 9, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) late on Wednesday.
Inventories rose by around 10.2 million barrels to 424.1 million barrels, against the market expectation of a decrease of around 3.9 million barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, excluded from commercial crude stocks, fell by 4.7 million barrels to 382.3 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Gasoline inventories, however, increased by 4.5 million barrels to 223.6 million barrels over the same period.
- Crude production decreases
EIA data showed that US crude oil imports rose by 855,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 6.87 million bpd during the week ending Dec. 9, while crude oil exports increased by 886,000 bpd to about 4.32 million bpd.
US crude oil production, meanwhile, decreased by 107,000 bpd to approximately 12.54 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 Ebru Sengul Cevrioglu
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr