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

HOUSTON, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- U.S. crude oil imports increased and exports decreased during the week ending Dec. 23, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said on Thursday.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.252 million barrels per day (b/d) last week, up by 433 million b/d from the previous week, while crude oil exports averaged 3.465 million b/d, down by 895,000 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 6.237 million b/d, down by 3.8 percent from the same four-week period last year.

During the same period, U.S. crude oil exports averaged about 3.893 million b/d, up by 32.8 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.