The
U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported on Thursday that crude
inventories surged by 6.088 million barrels in the week ended October 8,
following an increase of 2.346 million barrels in the previous week. Economists
had forecast a gain of 0.702 million barrels.
At
the same time, gasoline stocks declined by 1.958 million barrels, while
analysts had expected a drop of 0.083 million barrels. Distillate stocks edged
down 0.024 million barrels, while analysts had forecast a decrease of 0.933
million barrels.
Meanwhile,
oil production in the U.S. increased 100,000 barrels a day to 11.400 million
barrels a day.
U.S.
crude oil imports averaged 6.0 million barrels per day last week, decreased by
1.0 million barrels per day from the previous week.