US crude oil stocks decline for week ending Jan. 17

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - The U.S.' crude oil inventories decreased last week, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursday.

Commercial crude oil inventories declined by 0.4 million barrels, or 0.1%, to 428.1 million barrels for the week ending Jan. 17, the EIA data showed. The market expectation was a decline of 1 million barrels. Inventories fell by 2.5 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 showed an increase of 1.7 million barrels, or 0.7%, to 260 million barrels during that period. The market expectation was an increase of 3 million barrels. Inventories rose by 6.7 million barrels during the previous week.

- Crude production unchanged

The U.S.' crude oil imports fell by 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 6.43 million bpd for the week ending Jan. 17, and crude oil exports saw a decline of 67,000 bpd to 3.41 million bpd, according to the EIA data.

Crude oil production in the U.S. remained unchanged at 13 million bpd for the week ending Jan. 17, the EIA data showed. The U.S.' crude oil output reached an all-time high of 13 million bpd for the week ending Jan. 10.

The U.S.' crude oil production is expected to average 13.3 million bpd in 2020, according to the EIA's Short-Term Energy Outlook report for January.