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HOUSTON, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- U.S. crude oil production increased slightly during the week ending Aug. 23, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Wednesday.

According to the EIA, U.S. crude oil production averaged 12.5 million barrels per day (b/d) last week, up by 200,000 b/d from the previous week and up by about 1.5 million b/d year on year. This was the first week that the U.S. crude oil production increased after remaining unchanged for two consecutive weeks.

U.S. crude oil production will reach record levels in 2019 and 2020, the EIA said earlier this month.

In its latest Short-Term Energy Outlook, EIA forecast U.S. crude oil production will average 12.3 million b/d in 2019 and 13.3 million b/d in 2020, both of which would be record levels.

The EIA also estimated that U.S. crude oil production will average 11.7 million b/d in July 2019, down by 0.3 million b/d from the June level.