US commercial crude oil inventories excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve rose by 900,000 barrels to 427.3 million barrels in the week ended September 25, as refineries operated at a slower pace, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said. Stocks were about 2% above the five-year average for the time of year, while analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected a 200,000-barrel decline. This release revises the figures reflected in the existing record, which listed a 1.019 million-barrel increase against a forecast 1.9 million-barrel draw. The earlier record also showed a 1.79 million-barrel rise in the prior week, a 38 million-barrel decline in commercial inventories over the preceding 24 weeks, and total US crude inventories nearly 13 million barrels higher year to date. It reported an additional 800,000-barrel Strategic Petroleum Reserve release, leaving holdings at 283.8 million barrels, gasoline inventories up 2.99 million barrels, distillates down 286,000 barrels, and US oil production unchanged at 13.94 million barrels per day in the week ended September 18.