US commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 0.8% during the week ending July 26, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) late Wednesday.
Inventories declined by about 3.4 million barrels to 433 million barrels, compared to the market prediction of a fall of around 1.6 million barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, increased by about 700,000 barrels to 375.1 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Over the same period, gasoline inventories declined by approximately 3.7 million barrels to 223.8 million barrels.
- Crude production falls
EIA data showed that US crude oil production decreased by 19,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 13.7 million bpd during the week ending July 26.
US crude oil imports increased by 82,000 bpd to about 6.95 million bpd, and exports rose by 733,000 bpd to approximately 4.92 million bpd over the same period.
In the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on July 9, the EIA predicted that crude oil output in the country would reach an average of 13.25 million bpd this year.
Next year, crude oil output in the country is expected to reach 13.77 million bpd.
By Firdevs Yuksel
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr