US commercial crude oil inventories fell by 0.7% in the week ending May 22, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursday.
Inventories declined by 3.3 million barrels to around 441.7 million barrels, while market expectations had pointed to a decrease of 2.8 million barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, also fell by 9.1 million barrels to 365.1 million barrels, the data revealed.
Over the same period, gasoline inventories dropped by 2.6 million barrels to about 211.6 million barrels.
- Crude production increases
EIA data showed that US crude oil production rose by 13,000 barrels per day (bpd) to about 13.7 million bpd during the week ending May 22.
US crude oil imports decreased by 804,000 bpd to around 5.21 million bpd, while exports decreased by 1.16 million bpd to about 4.44 million bpd over the same period.
In its Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on May 12, the EIA forecasted that US crude oil output would average 13.65 million bpd in 2026.
By Humeyra Ayaz
Anadolu Agency
