US commercial crude oil inventories increased 2% during the week ending July 1, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursday.
Inventories rose by 8.2 million barrels to 423.8 million barrels, against the market expectation of a drop of 1.1 million barrels.
However, strategic petroleum reserves, which are not included in commercial crude stocks, declined by 5.8 million barrels to 492 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Gasoline inventories also decreased by 2.5 million barrels to 219.1 million barrels over the same period.
-Crude production falls
According to EIA data, US crude oil imports increased by 841,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 6.83 million bpd during the week ending July 1, while crude oil exports fell by 768,000 bpd to 2.61 million bpd.
US crude oil production, meanwhile, decreased by 23,000 bpd to approximately 12.5 million bpd over the same period.
In the June Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), the EIA forecasts that crude oil output in the US will average 11.9 million bpd in 2022, up from 11.2 million bpd in 2021.
In 2023, crude oil output in the country is forecast to reach 12.97 million bpd.
Source: Anadolu Agency