Commercial crude oil inventories in the US increased by 0.9% for the week ending Oct. 23, according to data released by the country's Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Inventories rose by 4.3 million barrels to 492.4 million barrels much more than the market expectation of a 1.2 million-barrel rise.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are not included in the commercial crude stocks, fell to 639.4 million barrels for the week ending Oct. 23, the data showed.
Gasoline inventories decreased by 900,000 barrels, or 0.4%, to 226.1 million barrels over that period.
- Crude production increases
According to EIA data, US crude oil imports increased by 545,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 5.7 million bpd for the week ending Oct. 23, while crude oil exports saw an increase of 424,000 bpd to 3.5 million bpd.
The data showed that US crude oil production rose by 1.2 million bpd to approximately 11.6 million bpd during the same period.
US crude output is now estimated at 11.2 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 Firdevs Yuksel
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr