US crude oil stocks rise slightly for w/ending Dec. 6

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - Crude oil and gasoline inventories rose in the U.S. while crude oil production fell slightly last week, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.

Commercial crude oil inventories increased by 0.8 million barrels, or 0.2%, to 447.9 million barrels for the week ending Dec. 6, the EIA data showed. The market expectation was a decline of 2.8 million barrels. Inventories decreased by 4.9 million barrels during the previous week.

Strategic petroleum reserves, which are not included in the commercial crude stocks, fell by 0.2 million barrels to 635 million barrels last week, according to the data.

Gasoline inventories showed an increase of 5.4 million barrels, or 2.4%, to 234.8 million barrels during that period, more than the market expectation of an increase of 2.5 million barrels. The previous week saw gasoline inventories jump by 3.4 million barrels.

- Crude output falls

The U.S.' crude oil imports rose by 899,000 barrels per day (bpd) to reach 6.89 million bpd for the week ending Dec. 6, and crude oil exports also saw increases of 265,000 bpd to 3.4 million bpd, according to the EIA data.

The U.S.' crude oil production decreased by 92,000 bpd to around 12.8 million bpd for the week ending Dec. 6, the EIA data showed. While there was an 8,000 bpd increase in the state of Alaska, output from other U.S. states, excluding Hawaii, fell by a total of 100,000 bpd.

Crude oil production in the U.S. is expected to average 13.2 million bpd in 2020, according to the EIA's Short-Term Energy Outlook report for December.