U.S. petroleum inventories declined during the week ended Jan. 8, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Wednesday, as overall demand increased and production held steady.

EIA said in its Weekly Petroleum Status Report that total U.S. commercial petroleum inventories decreased by 9.4 million bbl in the week ended Jan. 8. Crude oil inventories — excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve — decreased by 3.2 million bbl from the prior week.  

Despite a draw in the latest covered week, U.S. crude inventory of 482.2 million bbl was 8% above the five-year average for this time of year, EIA said.

Overall petroleum demand increased 15% week/week for the latest covered period and was up 3% from the same week a year earlier, according to the agency. Year/year...