US commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 0.1% during the week ending July 21, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Inventories fell by around 600,000 barrels to 456.8 million barrels, against the American Petroleum Institute's expectation of a rise of around 1.32 million barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, remained unchanged at 346.8 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Gasoline inventories, however, declined by 800,000 barrels to 217.6 million barrels over the same period.
- Crude production falls
EIA data showed that US crude oil imports decreased by about 807,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 6.37 million bpd during the week ending July 21, while crude oil exports rose by around 777,000 bpd to about 4.6 million bpd.
US crude oil production, meanwhile, declined by 99,000 bpd and stood at 12.6 million bpd over the same period.
In the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on July 12, the EIA predicted that crude oil output in the country would reach an average of 12.56 million bpd this year.
Next year, crude oil output in the country is expected to reach 12.85 million bpd.
By Firdevs Yuksel
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr