The nation’s stockpiles of commercial crude oil plunged by nearly 5 million barrels last week as the United States continues to emerge as a net petroleum exporter at the end of 2019.
The U.S. is churning out record-high crude oil production at an estimated 12.9 million barrels a day and exporting nearly a quarter of that crude daily. Although the U.S. still imports about twice as much crude as it exports – when counting refined products such as gasoline – the country exported 62,000 more barrels of petroleum products than it brought in last week, according to weekly data from the U.S. Energy Department.
This comes after the government confirmed that September was the first month ever on record in which the country shipped out more petroleum supplies than it imported.
In the meantime, the weekly dip of 4.9 million barrels of crude oil supplies helped push up oil prices Wednesday morning in addition to potentially bullish news from U.S.-China trade talks and this week’s upcoming OPEC meetings. The U.S. benchmark for oil rose by more than $2 Wednesday to more than $58 per barrel.
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