The U.S. Energy
Information Administration (EIA) revealed on Wednesday that crude inventories rose
by 4.892 million barrels in the week ended July 17. Economists had forecast a
decrease of 1.950 million barrels.
At the same
time, gasoline stocks dropped by 1.802 million barrels, while analysts had
expected a decline of 1.386 million barrels. Distillate stocks increased by 1.073
million barrels, while analysts had forecast a decrease of 0.618 million
barrels.
Meanwhile, oil
production in the U.S. grew by 100,000 barrels a day to 11.100 million barrels
a day.
U.S. crude oil
imports averaged 5.9 million barrels per day last week, up by 373,000 thousand barrels
per day from the previous week.