US crude oil stocks rise against market expectation

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - The US' commercial crude oil stocks increased last week against the market expectation of a decline, according to data released by the country's Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.

Commercial crude oil inventories in the US rose by 5.7 million barrels, or 1.1%, to 538.1 million barrels for the week ending June 5, the data showed. The market expectation was a decline of 1.7 million barrels. Inventories fell by 2.1 million barrels during the previous week.

Strategic petroleum reserves, which are not included in the commercial crude stocks, increased by 2.2 million barrels, or 0.3%, to 650 million barrels for the week ending June 5, the data revealed.

Gasoline inventories also rose by 0.9 million barrels, or 0.3%, to 258.7 million barrels over that period, much higher than the market expectation of an increase of 71,000 barrels. The previous week saw gasoline stocks rise by 2.8 million barrels.

- Crude oil production down

The US' crude oil imports rose by 685,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 6.86 million bpd for the week ending June 5, while crude oil exports declined by 355,000 bpd to 2.44 million bpd, according to the EIA data.

The data showed that US crude oil production decreased by 120,000 bpd to approximately 11.1 million bpd for the week ending June 5. The US' crude oil output reached an all-time high of 13.1 million bpd for the week ending Feb. 28.

Crude oil production is expected to average 11.6 million bpd in 2020, according to the EIA's Short-Term Energy Outlook report for June.

The country surpassed Saudi Arabia, and then Russia, in November 2018 to become the world's biggest crude oil producer.