Crude oil inventories in the U.S. rose last week despite the market expectation of a decline, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Commercial crude oil inventories increased by 1.6 million barrels, or 0.4%, to 440.5 million barrels for the week ending August 9, the EIA data showed. The market expectation was a decline of 2.77 million barrels. Inventories rose by 2.4 million barrels over the previous week.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are not included in the commercial crude stocks, remained unchanged at 644.8 million barrels last week, according to the data.
Gasoline inventories, on the other hand, declined by 1.4 million barrels, or 0.6%, to 233.8 million barrels during that period, against the market expectation of an increase of 250,000 barrels. During the previous week, gasoline inventories saw a rise of 4.4 million barrels.
- Crude production rises
U.S. crude oil production increased slightly by 80,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 12.3 million bpd for the week ending August 9, the EIA data showed.
Last week, there was a 20,000 bpd decline in crude production in the state of Alaska, while other U.S. states excluding Hawaii posted an output increase of 100,000 bpd.
Crude oil production in the U.S. is expected to average 12.3 million bpd in 2019 and 13.3 million bpd in 2020, according to the EIA's Short Term Energy Outlook report for August.
By Ovunc Kutlu
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr