The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced on Wednesday
that crude inventories declined by
4.649 million barrels in the week
ended August 16, following an increase of 1.357 million barrels in the previous
week. This marked the steepest weekly drop in the U.S. crude inventories since mid-June. Economists had forecast a draw of 2.720
million barrels.
At the same
time, gasoline stocks fell by 1.606 million barrels. Analysts had expected
a slip of 1.000 million barrels. The previous week witnessed a plunge of 2.894 million
barrels.
Elsewhere,
distillate stocks tumbled by 3.312 million barrels., the most since the week
ended March 1 (-4.13 million barrels). Analysts had predicted a gain of 0.040 million
barrels. The previous week saw a drop of 1.673 million barrels.
Meanwhile, oil
production in the U.S. jumped by 100,000 barrels a day to 13.400 million
barrels per day.
U.S. crude oil
imports averaged 6.7 million barrels per day last week,
logging an advance of 366,000 barrels per day from the week before.