Commercial crude oil inventories in the United States, not taking into account those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), were down by one million barrels to 414.6 million barrels in the week ending January 3, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed in its report on Wednesday.
Crude oil refinery inputs averaged 16.9 million barrels per day (bpd) during the reported week, increasing by 44,000 bpd compared to the previous week's figure. Refineries operated at 93.3% of their operable capacity, while gasoline production decreased, averaging 98.9 million bpd. Distillate fuel production fell, averaging 5.2 million bpd.
Crude oil imports went down by 497,000 bpd on a weekly basis to an average of 6.6 million bpd. Meanwhile, total commercial petroleum inventories increased by 5 million barrels.
