US commercial crude oil inventories increased 2.1% during the week ending Sept. 2, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursday.
Inventories rose by around 8.8 million barrels to 427.2 million barrels, against the market expectation of a rise of around 3.6 million barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are not included in commercial crude stocks, fell by 7.5 million barrels to 442.5 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Gasoline inventories increased by 300,000 barrels to 214.8 million barrels over the same period.
- Crude production falls
According to EIA data, US crude oil imports increased by 824,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 6.77 million bpd during the week ending Sept. 2, while crude oil exports fell by 534,000 bpd to 3.43 million bpd.
US crude oil production, meanwhile, declined by 4,000 bpd to approximately 12.51 million bpd over the same period.
In the September Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), the EIA forecasted that crude oil output in the US would average 11.8 million bpd in 2022, up from 11.2 million bpd in 2021.
In 2023, crude oil output in the country is forecast to reach 12.6 million bpd.
By Sibel Morrow
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr