US commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 2.4% during the week ending Aug. 25, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Inventories fell by around 10.6 million barrels to 422.9 million barrels, compared to the American Petroleum Institute's expectation of a draw of around 11.49 million barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, increased by 600,000 to stand at 348.9 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Gasoline inventories declined by 200,000 barrels to 217.4 million barrels over the same period.
- Crude production unchanged
EIA data showed that US crude oil production remained unchanged at 13.2 million barrels per day (bpd) during the week ending Aug. 25.
US crude oil imports decreased by about 316,000 bpd to around 6.62 million bpd over the same period, while crude oil exports rose by around 270,000 bpd to about 4.53 million bpd.
In the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on August 10, the EIA predicted that crude oil output in the country would reach an average of 12.80 million bpd this year.
Next year, crude oil output in the country is expected to reach 13 million bpd.
By Firdevs Yuksel
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr