On Wednesday, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) data showed that the country’s commercial crude oil inventories surprisingly rose last week.
In the week ended July 3, commercial crude stocks increased by 1.1% or 5.7 million barrels to 539.2 million barrels. The market only estimated 3.1 million barrels of increase.
The country’s strategic petroleum reserves (SPR) climbed by 0.1% or 0.6 million barrels to 656 million barrels last week.
On the other hand, gasoline inventories slumped by 1.9% or 4.8 million barrels to 251.7 million barrels. The reading contrasted with market expectation for a 2,000 barrels drop.
Meanwhile, the country’s crude production edged up by 36,000 bpd to around 11 million bpd for the period. Imports of crude oil hiked by 1.42 million bpd to 7.39 million bpd while exports lost 705,000 bpd to 2.38 million bpd.
The EIA's Short-Term Energy Outlook report for July estimated crude production to average 11.6 million bpd this year.
