US commercial crude oil inventories increased 1.3% during the week ending Aug. 5, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Inventories rose by around 5.5 million barrels to 432 million barrels, against the market expectation of a rise of 73,000 barrels.
However, strategic petroleum reserves, which are not included in commercial crude stocks, declined by 5.3 million barrels to 464.6 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Gasoline inventories fell by 5 million barrels to 220.3 million barrels over the same period.
-Crude production rises
According to EIA data, US crude oil imports decreased by 1.17 million barrels per day (bpd) to around 6.17 million bpd during the week ending Aug. 5, while crude oil exports decreased by 1.4 million bpd to 2.1 million bpd.
US crude oil production, meanwhile, increased by 96,000 bpd to approximately 12.63 million bpd over the same period.
In the August Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), the EIA forecasts that crude oil output in the US will average 11.86 million bpd in 2022, up from 11.2 million bpd in 2021.
In 2023, crude oil output in the country is forecast to reach 12.7 million bpd.
By Sibel Morrow
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr