The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) informed on Wednesday
that crude inventories climbed by 7.265 million barrels in the week ended April 26, following
a fall of 6.368 million barrels in the previous week. This was the strongest weekly increase in the U.S. crude
inventories in 11 weeks. Economists
had predicted a drop of 2.300 million barrels.
At the same
time, gasoline stocks rose by 0.344 million barrels, recording the first
advance in three weeks. The previous week saw a
slip of 0.634 million barrels.
Elsewhere,
distillate stocks declined by 0.732 million barrels. The previous week saw
a jump of 1.614 million barrels.
Meanwhile, oil
production in the U.S. held
steady at 13.100 million barrels per day.
U.S. crude oil
imports averaged 6.8 million barrels per day last week, logging a gain of 274,000
barrels per day from the week before.