Contrary to the dominant theme of 2022, U.S. crude producers nudged output higher last week, while travel fuel consumption declined along with overall petroleum demand, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Wednesday.

Production for the week ended March 25 ticked up to 11.7 million b/d after holding at 11.6 million b/d through all of February and most of March, EIA’s latest Weekly Petroleum Status Report showed. American producers have been under pressure to increase crude supplies amid mounting global demand and waning Russian oil exports during the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.

Exploration and production companies, however, have cautioned that it takes time to ramp up drilling and output – and that is particularly true in the current inflation-infused...