Commercial crude oil inventories in the United States, not taking into account those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), went up by 10.2 million barrels to 424.1 million barrels in the week ending December 9, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its report released on Wednesday.
Crude oil refinery inputs averaged 16.1 million barrels per day (bpd), down by 459,000 bpd compared to the previous week's average. Refineries operated at 92.2% of their operable capacity. Meanwhile, gasoline production rose by 9.2 million bpd on a weekly basis.
Imports of crude oil averaged 6.9 million bpd, increasing by 850,000 bpd registered the week before. In the meantime, total commercial petroleum inventories grew by 14 million barrels.