HOUSTON, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- Both U.S. crude oil imports and exports decreased during the week ending Jan. 25, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday.

According to the Weekly Petroleum Status Report, U.S. crude oil imports averaged 7.1 million barrels per day last week, down by about one million barrels per day from the previous week, while crude oil exports saw a daily average of 1.9 million barrels, down by 91,000 barrels per day from the previous week.

Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged around 7.7 million barrels per day, 4.5 percent less than the same four-week period last year. The daily average exports of crude oil over the past four weeks were about 2.3 million barrels, up by 892,500 barrels per day year-on-year.

When adding in all imports and exports of crude oil and petroleum products, the United States imported a net 1.7 million barrels per day last week, seeing a 1.6 million decline from the Jan. 12-18 week.

During the week ending Nov. 30, 2018, the United States exported more crude oil and petroleum products than it imported for the first time in weekly data going back to 1991. This single-week estimate was considered a part of a longer-term trend -- the United States is on the way to become a net energy exporter.

In its Annual Energy Outlook 2019 released last week, EIA forecast that the United States will become a net energy exporter in 2020 thanks to its increasing production of crude oil and decreasing domestic consumption of petroleum products.