US commercial crude oil inventories rose by 0.8% for the week ending July 30, according to the latest data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Inventories increased by 3.6 million barrels to 439.2 million barrels, higher than the market expectation of a 2.9 million-barrel draw.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are not included in commercial crude stocks, remained unchanged at 621.3 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
However, gasoline inventories decreased by 5.3 million barrels to 228.9 million barrels over that period.
- Crude production increases
According to EIA data, US crude oil imports decreased by 75,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 6.4 million bpd for the week ending July 30, while crude oil exports fell by 585,000 bpd to around 1.9 million bpd.
The data showed that US crude oil production increased by 29,000 bpd to approximately 11.57 million bpd during the same period.
The EIA forecasts that US crude output is estimated at 11.1 million bpd for 2021, down from 11.24 million bpd in 2020.
In November 2018, the US first surpassed Saudi Arabia and then Russia to become the world's largest crude oil producer.
By Sibel Morrow
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr