US commercial crude oil inventories increased by 1.7% during the week ending July 4, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) late Wednesday.
Inventories rose by around 7.1 million barrels to 426 million barrels, defying market expectations of a 1.7 million-barrel draw.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, increased by 200,000 barrels, reaching 403 million barrels, the data revealed.
Over the same period, gasoline inventories decreased by around 2.7 million barrels to 229.5 million.
- Crude production falls
EIA data showed that US crude oil production decreased by 48,000 barrels per day (bpd) to about 13.39 million bpd during the week ending July 4.
US crude oil imports fell by 906,000 bpd to approximately 6.01 million bpd, while exports rose by 452,000 bpd to around 2.75 million bpd over the same period.
In the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on July 8, the EIA projected that crude oil output in the country would average 13.37 million bpd in 2025.
By Firdevs Yuksel
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr