Domestic crude stocks increased for the fourth time in five weeks as upticks in imports and production more than offset rising demand, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Wednesday.

EIA said oil inventories for the week ended Nov. 19, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), increased by 1.0 million bbl from the previous week.

Oil imports averaged 6.4 million b/d last week, up by 245,000 b/d from the previous week, EIA reported in its latest Weekly Petroleum Status Report. Over the past four weeks, the agency said imports averaged about 6.2 million b/d, up 19% from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, production last week rose to 11.5 million b/d from 11.4 million b/d the prior week. That was well above the 10.5 million b/d level of a year earlier,...