US commercial crude oil inventories increased 0.3% during the week ending Sept. 16, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Inventories rose by around 1.1 million barrels to 430.8 million barrels, against the market expectation of a rise of around 2.32 million barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, excluded in commercial crude stocks, fell by 6.9 million barrels to 427.2 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Gasoline inventories decreased by 1.6 million barrels to 214.6 million barrels over the same period.
-Crude production rises
EIA data showed that US crude oil imports increased by 1.15 million barrels per day (bpd) to around 6.94 million bpd during the week ending Sept. 16, while crude oil exports rose by 25,000 bpd to 3.54 million bpd.
US crude oil production, meanwhile, decreased by 4,000 bpd to approximately 12.53 million bpd over the same period.
In the September Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), the EIA forecasted that crude oil output in the US would average 11.8 million bpd in 2022, up from 11.2 million bpd in 2021.
Crude oil output in the country in 2023 is forecast to reach 12.6 million bpd.
By Zeynep Beyza Kilic
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr