The
U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed on Wednesday that crude
inventories rose by 0.594 million barrels in the week ended April 16, following
a drop of 5.889 million barrels in the previous week. Economists had forecast a
draw of 2.975 million barrels.
At
the same time, gasoline stocks edged up 0.086 million barrels, while analysts
had expected a build of 0.464 million barrels. Distillate stocks dropped by 1.074
million barrels, while analysts had forecast a decrease of 0.956 million barrels.
Meanwhile,
oil production in the U.S. remained unchanged at 11.000 million barrels a day.
U.S.
crude oil imports averaged 5.4 million barrels per day last week, down by
448,000 thousand barrels per day from the previous week.