Commercial crude oil inventories in the US fell by 4.5 million barrels to 514.1 million barrels for the week ending August 7, a decrease of 0,9% percent which is more than market forecasts, according to data released by the country's Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursday.
The market expectation was a decrease of 2.9 million barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are not included in the commercial crude stocks, decreased to 653.9 million barrels for the week ending August 7, the data revealed.
Gasoline inventories, however, increased by 0.7 million barrels, or 0.3%, to 247.1 million barrels over that period.
- Crude production decreases
US crude oil imports decreased by 389,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 5.621 million bpd for the week ending August 7, however crude oil exports increased by 324,000 bpd to 3.14 million bpd, according to the EIA data.
The data showed that US crude oil production decreased by 300,000 bpd to approximately 11,1 million bpd for the week ending August 7.
The US crude oil production is estimated to decrease by 370,000 barrel per day (bpd) from the previous STEO, according to the EIA's Short-Term Energy Outlook report for August.
The EIA forecast crude output in 2020 to average 11.3 million bpd and 11.1 million bpd in 2021, down from 12.2 million bpd in 2019.
In November 2018, the US first surpassed Saudi Arabia, and then Russia to become the world's biggest crude oil producer.
By Sibel Morrow
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr