Oil reserves in the US rose last week by 8.4 million barrels from the previous period and amounted to 494.5 million, the government said Wednesday.
The figure is higher than expected by analysts, who had forecast a rise of 3.5 million barriles.Tras the release of the data, the price of a barrel of Texas oil (WTI) for March delivery fell 1 84% and stood at $ 30.87 a barrel.
In the past four weeks, the average crude oil imports stood at 7.772 million barrels, up 7.2 percent over the previous year.
The report said gasoline stocks rose last 3.5 million barrels week, 1.4% above that recorded a week ago, to 248.5 million barrels.
Meanwhile, stocks of heating oil fell by 4.1 million barrels, 2.5% less than last week and stood at 160.5 million barrels.
The country's refineries worked at 87.4% of installed capacity, compared with 90.6% the previous week.
These figures exclude the Strategic Petroleum Reserves Government, which remained unchanged at 695.1 million barrels.
The total reserves of crude and refined products, including strategic reserves, reached last week 2023.3 million barrels, below 2024.3 million in the previous period.
Source: AFP.
Source: AFP.