Crude oil production in the U.S. remained at record high level last week, while commercial crude stocks rose but gasoline inventories declined, according to data released by Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursday.
U.S., the world's largest crude oil producer, saw its crude output rise by 12,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the state of Alaska, while it remained unchanged in other states, the EIA data showed.
With that result, the U.S.' crude oil production remained almost unchanged at the all-time highest level of 12.6 million bpd for the week ending Oct. 11, after reaching that level for the week ending Oct. 4.
U.S. crude oil production is expected to average 12.3 million bpd in 2019 and 13.2 million bpd in 2020, according to EIA's Short-Term Energy Outlook report for October.
- Crude stocks rise more than expectation
Commercial crude oil stocks in the U.S. increased by 9.3 million barrels, or 2.2%, to reach 434.9 million barrels last week, rising much more than the market expectation of 2.8 million barrels. During the previous week, crude inventories rose by 2.9 million barrels.
This marked the fifth consecutive week that commercial crude oil stocks in the country marked an increase.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are not included in commercial crude stocks, decreased by 1.3 million barrels, or 0.2%, to 643.3 million barrels for the week ending Oct. 11.
Gasoline inventories also fell by 2.6 million barrels, or 1.1%, to 226.2 million barrels last week. While the market expectation for gasoline stocks was a decline of 1.2 million barrels, gasoline inventories decreased 1.2 million barrels during the previous week.
While crude oil imports of the U.S. rose by 70,000 bpd to reach 6.29 million bpd for the week ending Oct. 11, crude oil exports of U.S. fell by 153,000 bpd to 3.25 million bpd, according to the EIA data.
By Ovunc Kutlu
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr