US oil imports down, exports up last week: EIA

Houston, March 16 (IANS) US crude oil imports decreased while exports increased during the week ending March 10, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a report.

US crude oil imports averaged 6.216 million barrels per day (b/d) last week, down by 55,000 million b/d from the previous week, while crude oil exports averaged 5.027 million b/d, up by 1.665 million b/d from the previous week, according to the Weekly Petroleum Status Report on Wednesday.

Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.255 million b/d, down by 1.1 per cent from the same four-week period last year, Xinhua news agency reported.

During the same period, crude oil exports averaged about 4.654 million b/d, up by 57.2 per cent year-on-year.

The US has been one of the world's important oil producers in past years with the help of its shale oil production growth.