US crude oil inventories show strong rise

The U.S.' crude oil inventories showed a strong increase last week, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.

Commercial crude oil inventories rose by 15 million barrels, or 3%, to 518.6 million barrels for the week ending April 17, the EIA data showed.

The market expectation was an increase of 15.1 million barrels. Inventories rose by 19.2 million barrels during the previous week.

Strategic petroleum reserves, which are not included in the commercial crude stocks, remained unchanged at 635 million barrels last week, the data revealed.

Gasoline inventories also showed an increase of 1 million barrels, or 0.4%, to 263.2 million barrels over that period.

While the market expectation was an increase of 3.5 million barrels for gasoline stocks, they rose by 4.9 million barrels during the previous week.

- Crude oil production down

The U.S.' crude oil imports decreased by 743,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 4.94 million bpd for the week ending April 17, while crude oil exports saw a decline of 546,000 bpd to 2.89 million bpd, according to the EIA data.

The EIA data showed that crude oil production in the U.S. decreased by 110,000 bpd to approximately 12.2 million bpd for the week ending April 17. The U.S.' crude oil output reached an all-time high of 13.1 million bpd for the week ending Feb. 28.

The U.S.' crude oil production is expected to average 11.8 million bpd in 2020, according to the EIA's Short-Term Energy Outlook report for April.

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