Crude oil inventories rose but production declined in the U.S. last week, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Commercial crude oil stocks increased by 2.2 million barrels, or 0.5%, to 485.5 million barrels for the week ending June 7, the EIA data showed. The market expectation was a decline of 0.5 million barrels. Stocks jumped by 6.8 million barrels during the previous week.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are not included in the commercial crude stocks, remained unchanged at 644.8 million barrels last week, according to the data.
Gasoline inventories increased by 0.8 million barrels, or 0.3%, to 234.9 million barrels during that period, coming almost in line with the market expectation of a rise of 0.74 million barrels. During the previous week, gasoline inventories saw an increase of 3.2 million barrels.
The U.S.' crude oil production decreased by 98,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 12.3 million bpd (mbpd) for the week ending June 7, the EIA data showed.
Last week, a 2,000 bpd increase in crude production was seen in the state of Alaska, while other U.S. states excluding Hawaii posted an output fall of 100,000 bpd.
Production is expected to average 12.32 million bpd in 2019 and 13.26 million bpd in 2020, according to the EIA's Short Term Energy Outlook report for June.
