HOUSTON, July 31 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. oil industry is still expanding despite declining refinery inputs, a U.S. business insider said Wednesday.
As American firms are still hiring oil field workers, the industry appears to be healthy for now, Kieran Quinn, an analyst with Progressive Global Energy in Houston, told Xinhua.
"We have been invited to bid for an offshore drilling project in the Gulf of Mexico," Quinn said.
U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday that U.S. crude oil refinery inputs decreased during the week ending July 26, averaging 17.0 million barrels per day (b/d), 43,000 b/d less than the previous week's average. Refineries operated at 93.0 percent of their operable capacity last week.
Over the past four weeks, supplied motor gasoline product averaged 9.6 million b/d, down by 1.3 percent from the same period last year, according to the EIA.