By David Gaffen

(Reuters] -The U.S. crude stocks fell dramatically last week because of an increase in oil exports that reached a higher than two-year peak, while production was near pre-pandemic levels. This is according to the Energy Information Administration on Wednesday.

    Crude inventories fell by 8 million barrels in the week ended April 15 to 413.7 million barrels, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 2.5 million-barrel rise.

Matt Smith from Kpler, Americas Analyst Lead, stated that “strong exports have been driven to Europe and should expect strength in coming weeks.”

This was due to an increase in exports which reached 4.3 million barrels/day in the last week. Imports dropped to their lowest level since April 2021. The drop in imports is a result of the global demand for crude oil.

These exports helped offset the injection of 4.7 millions barrels of U.S. Strategic Reserves as part of White House efforts to reduce fuel prices.

U.S. production increased to 11.9 Million bpd. This was the highest level since May 2020. It occurred at the time when oil companies started to decrease output to address the increasing coronavirus pandemic.

    Refinery crude runs rose by 194,000 bpd last week, increasing refinery utilization rates by 1 percentage point to 91% of total capacity.

This was despite the fact that overall US demand is down slightly. Product supplied, which measures demand, dropped to its lowest level in four weeks since June 2013.

    U.S. gasoline stocks fell by 761,000 barrels in the week to 232.4 million barrels. The stockpile of distillate (which includes diesel and) fell by 2.7million barrels to 106.7 million barrels. It was at levels that were not seen since May 2008

The data showed that oil prices increased, with futures rising $1.07 to $103.63 per barrel while the price of crude oil rose 75 cents, to $107.98 per barrel.