Commercial crude oil inventories in the US recorded the highest build since April with a 3.1% rise for the week ending Dec. 4, according to data released by the country's Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Inventories increased by 15.2 barrels to 503.2 million barrels against the market expectation of a fall of 1.5 million barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are not included in the commercial crude stocks, decreased by 100,000 barrels to 638.1 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Gasoline inventories increased by 4.2 million barrels, or 1.8%, to 237.9 million barrels over that period.
- Crude production rises
According to EIA data, US crude oil imports increased by 1.08 million barrels per day (bpd) to around 6.5 million bpd for the week ending Dec. 4, while crude oil exports also saw a decrease of 1.6 million bpd to 1.8 million bpd.
The data showed that US crude oil production rose by 5,000 bpd to approximately 11.61 million bpd during the same period.
US crude output is now estimated at 11.3 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 Sibel Morrow
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr