US commercial crude oil inventories increased by 1.8% during the week ending July 25, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) late Wednesday.
Inventories rose by around 7.7 million barrels to 426.7 million barrels, against the market expectation of a 2.3 million-barrel draw.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, also increased by 200,000 barrels to 402.7 million barrels, the data revealed.
Over the same period, gasoline inventories decreased by approximately 2.7 million barrels to 228.4 million barrels.
- Crude production rises
EIA data showed that US crude oil production increased by 41,000 barrels per day (bpd) to about 13.31 million bpd during the week ending July 25.
US crude oil imports rose by 159,000 bpd to approximately 6.14 million bpd, while exports fell by 1.16 million bpd to around 2.7 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