Commercial crude oil inventories in the United States excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve rose by 1.4 million barrels in the week ending on March 7, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed in its report published on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, US crude oil refinery inputs averaged 15.7 million barrels per day during the same week, 321,000 more compared to the previous week. Refineries operated at 86.5% of operable capacity during the reported period while gasoline production fell, averaging 9.6 million barrels per day.
At the same time, crude oil imports decreased by 343,000 during last week to average 5.5 million bpd. Total commercial petroleum inventories slumped by 6 million barrels last week.
