US commercial crude oil inventories (excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) for the week ended on February 26 increased by 21.6 million barrels, or 4.7%, and reached their highest level since mid-January at 484.6 million barrels, Report informs, citing the weekly review of the US Energy Information Administration.
Analysts polled by the DailyFx portal, by contrast, expected a decline of 1.85 million barrels.
The last time a comparable increase was in the week of April 6-10. Back then, it amounted to 19.2 million barrels.
Oil production in the country for the week ended on February 26 rose to 10 million barrels per day from the previous week's level of 9.7 million barrels.
Last week, the indicator fell to its lowest level since August 2020. On average, over the past four weeks, oil production in the United States amounted to 10.375 million barrels per day.
Oil production in the country in 2020 averaged 11.31 million barrels per day. In 2019, it was 12.248 million barrels per day.
The department reports exact production data in a monthly report. According to preliminary data, oil production in January amounted to 11.01 million barrels per day.
On February 9, the US Energy Department lowered its forecast for average oil production in 2021 to 11.02 million barrels per day and improved its forecast for production in 2022 to 11.53 million barrels.