US commercial crude oil inventories increased by 1.3% during the week ending Aug. 4, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Inventories rose by around 5.9 million barrels to 445.6 million barrels, against the American Petroleum Institute's expectation of a rise of around 4 million barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, increased by 1 million to stand at 347.8 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Similarly, gasoline inventories rose by 2.7 million barrels to 26.4 million barrels over the same period.
- Crude production increases
EIA data showed that US crude oil imports increased by about 14,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 6.68 million bpd during the week ending Aug. 4, while crude oil exports declined by around 2.9 million bpd to about 2.36 million bpd.
US crude oil production, meanwhile, increased by 384,000 bpd and stood at around 12.98 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