US commercial crude oil inventories increased by 2% during the week ending May 6, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Inventories rose by 8.5 million barrels to 424.2 million barrels, against the market expectation of a decrease of 457,000 barrels.
However, strategic petroleum reserves, which are not included in commercial crude stocks, declined by 7 million barrels to 543 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Gasoline inventories also decreased by 3.6 million barrels to 225 million barrels over the same period.
-Crude production falls
According to EIA data, US crude oil imports fell by 62,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 6.27 million bpd during the week ending May 6, while crude oil exports declined by 695,000 bpd to 2.88 million bpd.
US crude oil production, meanwhile, decreased by 107,000 bpd to approximately 12.25 million bpd during the same period.
In the April Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), the EIA forecasts that crude oil output in the US will average 12 million bpd in 2022, up from 11.2 million bpd in 2021.
In 2023, crude oil output in the country is forecast to reach its highest annual average on record at 13 million bpd.
Source: Anadolu Agency