The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced on Thursday
that crude inventories fell by 2.547 million barrels in the week ended June 14, following a
rise of 3.730 million barrels in the previous week. This was the first weekly decrease in the U.S.
crude inventories in three weeks. Economists had forecast a drop of 2.000 million barrels.
At the same
time, gasoline stocks declined by 2.280 million barrels, the
most since the week ended March 29 (-4.26 million barrels). Analysts had predicted
a build of 1.100 million barrels. The previous week witnessed a jump of 2.566 million
barrels.
Elsewhere,
distillate stocks plunged by 1.726 million barrels, the most since the week ended
April 12 (-2.76 million barrels). Analysts had foreseen
an advance of 1.000 million barrels. The previous week saw an increase of 0.881
million barrels.
Meanwhile, oil
production in the U.S. remained unchanged at
13.200 million barrels per day.
U.S. crude oil
imports averaged 7.1 million barrels per day last week, logging a tumble of 1.3
million barrels per day from the week before.