US commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 3.7% during the week ending July 28, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Inventories fell by around 17 million barrels to 439.8 million barrels, against the American Petroleum Institute's expectation of a fall of around 15.4 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, rose by 1.5 million barrels to 219.1 million barrels over the same period.
- Crude production falls
EIA data showed that US crude oil imports increased by about 301,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 6.67 million bpd during the week ending July 28, while crude oil exports rose by around 692,000 bpd to about 5.28 million bpd.
US crude oil production, meanwhile, declined by 14,000 bpd and stood at 12.59 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 Sibel Morrow
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr