U.S. Oil Inventories Fall Unexpectedly Over the Week

MOSCOW, 28 Sep — PRIME. U.S. commercial oil inventories (excluding the strategic reserve) fell 0.2 million barrels, or 0.1%, to 430.6 million barrels in the week ended Sept. 23, the Energy Information Administration’s weekly review said.

At the same time, analysts polled by the DailyFX portal expected an increase in inventories by 0.4 million barrels.

In addition, the country’s strategic oil reserve fell by 4.6 million barrels, or 1.1%, to 422.6 million barrels, the ministry adds. The index is at its lowest level since July 1984.

Oil reserves at the country’s largest terminal in Cushing during the reporting period rose to 25.7 million from 25 million barrels.

Inventories of gasoline in the US fell to 212.2 million barrels from last week’s level of 214.6 million barrels. Analysts had expected a decline of 2.4 million barrels. Distillate inventories decreased by 2.9 million barrels (by 2.5%) and amounted to 114.4 million barrels. An increase of 0.07 million barrels was forecast.

OIL PRODUCTION

U.S. oil production for the week ended Sept. 23 fell by 100,000 bpd to 12 million bpd, according to a weekly review by the country’s Energy Information Administration.

On average, over the past four weeks, US oil production amounted to 12.075 million barrels per day.

The department reports exact data on production in a monthly report with a difference of two months. According to the final data, US oil production in June amounted to 11.82 million barrels per day, and in July – 11.71 million barrels; for the whole of last year – an average of 11.254 million barrels per day.

On September 7, the US Department of Energy lowered the forecast for average oil production in the country for the current year by 70,000 barrels per day, to 11.79 million, and for the next year, also by 70,000 barrels, to 12.63 million barrels per day.