US crude oil inventories rise higher than expectation

ANKARA

The U.S.' crude oil inventories increased higher than the market expectation last week, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.

Commercial crude oil inventories rose by 3.4 million barrels, or 0.8%, to 435 million barrels for the week ending Jan. 31, the EIA data showed. The market expectation was an increase of 2.8 million barrels. Inventories rose by 3.5 million barrels during the previous week.

Strategic petroleum reserves, which are not included in the commercial crude stocks, remained unchanged at 635 million barrels last week, the data revealed.

Gasoline inventories, on the other hand, showed a small decrease of 0.1 million barrels to reach 261.1 million barrels during that period. The market expectation was an increase of 2 million barrels. Gasoline stocks rose by 1.2 million barrels during the previous week.

Crude production fell

The U.S.' crude oil imports decreased by 46,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 6.61 million bpd for the week ending Jan. 31, and crude oil exports saw a decline of 96,000 bpd to 3.41 million bpd, according to the EIA data.

Crude oil production in the U.S. fell slightly by 99,000 bpd to 12.9 million bpd for the week ending Jan. 31, the EIA data showed. The U.S.' crude oil output reached an all-time high of 13 million bpd for the week ending Jan. 10.

The U.S.' crude oil production is expected to average 13.3 million bpd in 2020, according to the EIA's Short-Term Energy Outlook report for January.