US commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 1.6% during the week ending March 24, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) late Wednesday.
Inventories fell by around 7.5 million barrels to 473.7 million barrels, against the American Petroleum Institute's expectation of an increase of 187,000 barrels.
However, strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, stayed unchanged at 371.6 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Gasoline inventories decreased by 2.9 million barrels to 226.7 million barrels over the same period.
- Crude production decreased
EIA data showed that US crude oil imports decreased by 847,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 5.32 million bpd during the week ending March 24, while crude oil exports fell by 348,000 bpd to about 4.58 million bpd.
US crude oil production, meanwhile, dropped by 109,000 bpd to around 12.63 million bpd over the same period.
In the March Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), the EIA forecasted that crude oil output in the US would average 12.44 million bpd in 2023, up from 11.90 million bpd in 2022.
Crude oil output in the country in 2024 is forecast to reach 12.63 million bpd.
By Zeynep Beyza Kilic
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr