U.S. crude oil imports increased while exports decreased during the week ending Oct. 6, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a report released on Thursday.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.329 million barrels per day (b/d) last week, up by 115,000 b/d from the previous week, while crude oil exports averaged 3.067 million b/d, down by 1.889 b/d from the previous week, according to the Weekly Petroleum Status Report.

Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.572 million b/d, up by 3.5 percent from the same four-week period last year.

During the same period, crude oil exports averaged about 4.276 million b/d, up by 9.6 percent year on year.

The United States has been one of the world's important oil producers in past years with the help of its shale oil production growth.