Oil reserves in the United States unexpectedly fell, production increased

According to the weekly report of the Energy Information Administration of the US Department of Energy, commercial oil reserves for the week ended February 4 unexpectedly decreased by 4.8 million barrels to 410.4 million barrels. Analysts, on the contrary, expected an increase of 400 thousand barrels. 

At the same time, the strategic reserve of oil in the country decreased by 1.4 million barrels to 587.5 million barrels. And oil reserves at the country's largest terminal in Cushing decreased during the reporting period: from 30.5 million barrels to 27.7 million.

In addition, the report indicated a decrease in gasoline inventories by 1.6 million barrels to 248.4 million. Analysts had expected an increase of 1.6 million barrels. Distillate stocks decreased by 0.9 million barrels to 121.8 million barrels. A decrease of 1.7 million barrels was predicted.

Oil production

The Ministry also shared statistics on oil production in the United States. Its indicators increased by 100 thousand barrels per day to the level of the previous week – up to 11.6 million barrels.

On average, over the past four weeks, production in the United States amounted to 11.6 million barrels per day.

It is worth noting that on February 8, the Ministry of Energy raised the forecast of average oil production in the country by the end of this year to 11.97 million, and next year to 12.6 million barrels per day.