US commercial crude oil inventories increased by 0.6% during the week ending Jan. 21, according to the latest data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Inventories rose by 2.4 million barrels to 416.2 million barrels, against the market expectation of a 400,000-barrel drop.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are not included in commercial crude stocks, decreased by 1.3 million barrels to 590.8 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
However, gasoline inventories increased by 1.3 million barrels to 247.9 million barrels over that period.
-Crude production decreases
According to EIA data, US crude oil imports decreased by 509,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 6.24 million bpd during the week ending Jan. 21, while crude oil exports rose by around 186,000 bpd to around 2.8 million bpd.
US crude oil production, meanwhile, decreased by 106,000 bpd to approximately 12.1 million bpd during the same period.
The EIA estimates that US crude output will reach 11.8 million bpd for 2022 and will rise to 12.2 million bpd in 2023, which would be the highest annual average US crude oil production on record.
By Ebru Sengul Cevrioglu
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr