Washington, Mar 23 (Prensa Latina) Commercial crude oil reserves in the United States decreased more than expected during the last week, closing at 413.4 million barrels, the Energy Information Agency (EIA) reported today.
For the period between March 11 and 18, analysts expected a reduction of 750 thousand barrels; but the fall tripled the forecast and reserves fell by 2.5 million.
Gasoline reserves also fell unexpectedly, plummeting by 2.9 million barrels.
Oil production in the North American country remained unchanged at 11.6 million barrels per day, but the fall in Russian exports increased pressure on insufficient world supply.
The decline becomes more worrying as it was accompanied by a notable drop of 4.2 million barrels in strategic reserves, which closed the week with 571.3 million barrels.
For 25 consecutive weeks, the United States registered decreases in its strategic reserves, based on the strategy promoted by the government to release millions of barrels from that source and face the rise in prices in the crude oil market.
At the end of February, President Joe Biden announced the release of 30 million, which was added to the 50 million put into circulation since November 23, when the measure began to take effect.
Already headed higher, the price of crude rose further after the release of data on Wednesday.
A barrel of North Sea Brent for May delivery climbed 5.42 percent to $121.74; while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose 5.20 percent to $114.96.
rgh/att
