Commercial crude oil inventories in the United States, not considering those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), increased by 1.3 million barrels to 432.4 million barrels in the week ending January 5, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) stated in its report published on Wednesday. Oil refinery inputs averaged 16.5 million barrels per day (bpd) during the week ending January 5, falling by 161,000 bpd compared to the previous week’s average. Refineries operated at 92.9% of their operable capacity. Gasoline production increased and averaged 9.7 million bpd. Crude oil imports decreased by 654,000 bpd week-on-week to average 6.2 million bpd. Total commercial petroleum inventories rose by 9.5 million barrels last week.