US crude oil stocks, production rise for w/e April 26

By Zeynep Beyza Kilic

ANKARA (AA) - Crude oil inventories and production surged in the U.S. last week, pushing oil prices down, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.

Commercial crude oil stocks increased by 9.9 million barrels, or 2.2 %, to 470.6 million barrels for the week ending April 26, the EIA data showed.

Accordingly, global oil prices fell, as the expectation for oil stocks was a rise of 1.5 million.

International benchmark Brent crude was trading at $71.76 per barrel at 0850GMT on Thursday while American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was trading at $63.19 a barrel at the same time.

Strategic petroleum reserves, which are not included in the commercial crude stocks, declined by 500,000 to 648.6 million barrels last week, according to the data.

Gasoline inventories increased by 900,000 barrels, or 0.4%, to 226.7 million barrels during that period. During the previous week, gasoline inventories saw a decline of 2.1 million barrels.

The U.S.' crude oil production rose by 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) to around 12.3 million bpd (mbpd) for the week ending April 26, the EIA data showed.

Crude oil imports rose by 265,000 barrels to 7.41 mbpd while exports dropped to 2.61 mbpd, down by 70,000.