US commercial crude oil inventories increased by 0.3% during the week ending Jan. 26, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Inventories rose by around 2.1 million barrels to 421.9 million barrels, compared to the market expectation of a fall of around 2.5 million barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, increased by 900,000 barrels to 357.4 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Gasoline inventories also rose by around 1.2 million barrels to 254.1 million barrels over the same period.
- Crude production rises
EIA data showed that US crude oil production increased by 706,000 million barrels per day (bpd) to around 13.43 million bpd during the week ending Jan. 26.
US crude oil imports rose by 25,000 million bpd to reach 5.6 million bpd, and crude oil exports dropped by 540,000 bpd to approximately 3.9 million bpd over the same period.
In the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on Jan. 9, the EIA predicted that crude oil output in the country would reach an average of 13.21 million bpd this year.
Next year, crude oil output in the country is expected to reach 13.44 million bpd.
By Duygu Alhan
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr