By Sibel Morrow
ANKARA (AA) - US commercial crude oil inventories increased by 0.3% during the week ending Feb. 11, according to the latest data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Inventories rose by 1.1 million barrels to 411.5 million barrels compared to the market expectation of a fall of 1.8 million barrels.
Strategic petroleum reserves, which are not included in commercial crude stocks, declined by 2.7 million barrels to 584.8 million barrels last week, the data revealed.
Gasoline inventories also decreased by 1.3 million barrels to 247.1 million barrels over that period.
- Crude production increases
According to EIA data, US crude oil imports fell by 599,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 5.79 million bpd during the week ending Feb. 11, while crude oil exports dropped by around 829,000 bpd to around 2.27 million bpd.
US crude oil production, meanwhile, rose by 6,000 bpd to approximately 12,061 million bpd during the same period.