US commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 1% during the week ending Dec. 8, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Inventories fell by around 4.3 million barrels to 440.8 million barrels, compared to the American Petroleum Institute's expectation of a fall of around 1.5 million barrels.
However, strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, were unchanged at 351.9 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Gasoline inventories rose by around 400,000 barrels to 224 million barrels over the same period.
- Crude production rises
EIA data showed that US crude oil production increased by 4,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 13.54 million bpd during the week ending Dec. 8.
US crude oil imports, however, decreased by 991,000 bpd to about 6.52 million bpd over the same period, while crude oil exports declined by 568,000 bpd to approximately 3.77 million bpd.
In the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on Dec. 12, the EIA predicted that crude oil output in the country would reach an average of 12.90 million bpd this year.
Next year, crude oil output in the country is expected to reach 13.11 million bpd.
By Handan Kazanci
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr