HOUSTON, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported a fall of 0.998 million barrels in the U.S. crude oil inventories for the week ending Feb. 8.
In the previous week ending Feb. 1, API reported a build of 2.514 million barrels.
In its latest Short-Term Energy Outlook released on Tuesday, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) U.S. crude oil prices will fall and crude oil production will increase in 2019 and 2020.
According to EIA, Brent crude oil spot prices will average 61 U.S. dollars per barrel in 2019 and 62 dollars per barrel in 2020, compared with an average of 71 dollars per barrel in 2018.
U.S. crude oil production averaged 12.0 million barrels per day (b/d) in January 2019, up 90,000 b/d from December 2018, said EIA.
It expected U.S. crude oil production to average 12.4 million b/d in 2019 and 13.2 million b/d in 2020, with most of the growth coming from the Permian region of the state of Texas and New Mexico.
Oil prices climbed on Tuesday as latest data showed the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) significantly curbed its crude oil production in January, indicating a tightening global supply.
The West Texas Intermediate for March delivery increased 0.69 U.S. dollar to settle at 53.10 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and Brent crude for April delivery climbed 0.91 dollar to close at 62.42 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
