U.S. oil imports up, exports down last week

U.S. crude oil imports increased while exports decreased during the week ending June 30, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a report released on Thursday.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 7.038 million barrels per day (b/d) last week, up by 459,000 b/d from the previous week, while crude oil exports averaged 3.901 million b/d, down by 1.437 million b/d from the previous week, according to the Weekly Petroleum Status Report.

Over the past four weeks, U.S. crude oil imports averaged about 6.54 million b/d, up by 0.4 percent from the same four-week period last year.

During the same period, U.S. crude oil exports averaged about 4.263 million b/d, up by 28.3 percent year on year.

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